On Tue, May 11, 2010 at 10:16 PM, Carl-Daniel Hailfinger < c-d.hailfinger.devel.2...@gmx.net> wrote:
> Hi, > > [please followup to flash...@flashrom.org] > > since I didn't get any answers except "hmm..." on IRC, I hope that list > feedback will be more verbose. > > In the past, flashrom served one purpose (developers writing LinuxBIOS > images or parts thereof to onboard flash), but nowadays it can handle > external programmers, graphics/network/storage cards and other hardware > as well. Given that the flashrom user base is growing rapidly especially > among less technically inclined people, we changed the flashrom command > line interface in various ways to eliminate nasty surprises. > > The flashrom 0.9.2 release is impending (only one small bugfix and one > big frontend/documentation patch left), and this is why I'd like > comments about the following change: > > -r and -w and -v currently take a filename argument, but that filename > can be anywhere on the command line. Examples: > > flashrom -p dummy backup.rom -r > flashrom -rp dummy backup.rom > flashrom -rV backup.rom > flashrom -p dummy -r backup.rom > > This flashrom behaviour is confusing and contradicts the man page which > says that -r/-w/-v are followed by a filename. Besides that, all other > options with arguments want their arguments directly after the option. > > I posted a patch which will make the accepted command line syntax > conform to the man page, but I'd like to hear about any problems this > change may cause. > The patch is at http://patchwork.coreboot.org/patch/1298/ (click on > "patch" to download it in raw form) and applies cleanly against latest > flashrom from svn. > > Tests of current svn flashrom with the patch applied are really > appreciated, and feedback about the interface change will be taken > seriously. I like the suggestion. There are lots of programs out there which presume that the first string encountered that does not have a flag assigned to it, e.g. -p or -c or whatever, is the filename to operate on. That behavior is nice when the program does not require arguments to behave in a sane manner, e.g. *mplayer foo.ogg*. This usage model doesn't make sense for Flashrom, so it makes sense to treat the filename as any other argument and require that it has a flag preceding it to define the behavior. /my $0.02 -- David Hendricks (dhendrix) Systems Software Engineer, Google Inc.
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