My main concern here is the integration of manual page functionality
into the commands themselves. I see both benefits and costs. The
benefit is that the documentation is more likely to match the actual
command. But part of the cost is a much higher cost to perform
localization for these, and (depending on implementation) a potentially
larger minimum size of the binaries. (I'm assuming for the moment that
the documentation is stored in the binary, and the command is doing more
than just executing some pipeline to access the manual content from
/usr/share/man or whatever.)
Personally, I think --man, --html and --nroff and such is a dangerous
precedent to set. I'd rather not have them, and instead rely on the
"man" command to provide this functionality. (Also with --html and
--nroff an --man, how is the content stored -- does the command do
format conversions on demand?... It seems like this functionality also
might add to the total code size, although I guess this functionality is
already stored in the AST libraries. Hopefully this is *not* storing 3
separate copies of the documentation in the binaries, at least!
Also, I'd like the case submitter to provide some justification for
these changes? Are there functional changes that will help with
familiarity? (I'm assuming most people use GNU utilities on foreign
operating systems, and not ksh93 versions.) Does this have any impact
on the size of the objects on disk, the performance of the utilities, or
the number of closed source bits we use to make up ON? Any of those
would help provide justification for these changes.
- Garrett
Alan Coopersmith wrote:
> I'm sponsoring this fast-track request on behalf of the
> ksh93-integration and busybox projects. The timeout is
> set for Friday, July 31, 2009.
>
> -Alan Coopersmith- alan.coopersmith at sun.com
> Sun Microsystems, Inc. - X Window System Engineering
>
> Template Version: @(#)sac_nextcase 1.68 02/23/09 SMI
> This information is Copyright 2009 Sun Microsystems
> 1. Introduction
> 1.1. Project/Component Working Name:
> AST versions of fold, mktemp, pathchk, & tty
> 1.2. Name of Document Author/Supplier:
> Author: Roland Mainz
> 1.3 Date of This Document:
> 24 July, 2009
> 4. Technical Description
>
> The release binding is the same as with the previous ksh93 project: a
> patch/micro release of Solaris delivering through OS/Net
> Stability levels are as described below.
>
> Additional materials (man pages and diffs) can be found in the
> 'materials/' subdirectory.
>
> This project is an amendment to the Korn Shell 93 Integration project
> (PSARC/2006/550, PSARC/2006/587, PSARC/2007/035, PSARC/2008/094,
> PSARC/2008/344, PSARC/2009/063 and PSARC/2009/248) and depends on
> PSARC/2009/248, specifying the following additional interfaces:
>
> 1) An enhanced version of the "fold" utility and an identical ksh93
> built-in command
> 2) An enhanced version of the "mktemp" utility and an identical ksh93
> built-in command
> 3) An enhanced version of the "pathchk" utility and an identical ksh93
> built-in command
> 4) An enhanced version of the "tty" utility and an identical ksh93
> built-in command
>
> Bug/RFE Number(s):
>
> 6863449 RFE: Update /usr/bin/fold to AT&T AST "fold"
> 6861633 RFE: Update /usr/bin/mktemp to AT&T AST "mktemp"
> 6863450 RFE: Update /usr/bin/pathchk to AT&T AST "pathchk"
> 6861634 RFE: Update /usr/bin/tty to AT&T AST "tty"
>
>
>
> Interface Stability Description
>
> --------- --------- -----------
> /usr/bin/fold Committed fold command
> /usr/bin/mktemp Committed mktemp command
> /usr/bin/tty Committed tty command
> /usr/bin/pathchk Committed pathchk command
>
>
>
>
> ##### Introduction:
> This case proposes to deliver the following features as a set of
> independent putbacks as they become available. Each feature is
> self contained and independent of the others, so out of order
> and partial putbacks at this granularity should have no adverse
> impact on the functionality and behavior of the system as a whole.
>
>
>
> #### Part 1: Enhancement of /usr/bin/fold
> The first part of this project specifies an enhancement to
> /usr/bin/fold based on the AT&T AST "fold" command.
> The AT&T AST version of the "fold" utility provides support for the
> following additional options found commonly in other
> implementations such as GNU and BSD:
> -- snip --
> --bytes (same as existing "-b" option)
> -c, --continue=text
> -d, --delimiter=delim
> --spaces (same as existing "-s" option)
> --width=width (same as existing "-w"/"-<number>" option)
> --man, --html, --nroff, --help, --version
> -- snip --
> The stability of the "/usr/bin/fold" command and built-in
> command-line interface (including the new options) and system
> variables documented in fold(1) and specified by IEEE
> Std 1003.1-2008 is "Committed".
> For further information/specifications see the materials/-folder.
>
>
> #### Part 2: Enhancement of /usr/bin/mktemp
> The second part of this project specifies an enhancement to
> /usr/bin/mktemp based on the AT&T AST "mktemp" command.
> The AT&T AST version of the "mktemp" utility provides support for the
> following additional options found commonly in other
> implementations such as GNU and BSD:
> -- snip --
> --directory (same as existing "-d")
> -m, --mode
> --default (same as existing "-p")
> --quiet (same as existing "-q")
> --tmp, --temporary-directory (same as existing "-t")
> --unsafe, --dry-run (same as existing "-u")
> --man, --html, --nroff, --help, --version
> -- snip --
> The stability of the "/usr/bin/mktemp" command and built-in
> command-line interface (including the new options) and system
> variables documented in mktemp(1) is "Committed".
> For further information/specifications see the materials/-folder.
>
>
> #### Part 3: Enhancement of /usr/bin/pathchk
> The third part of this project specifies an enhancement to
> /usr/bin/pathchk based on the AT&T AST "pathchk" command.
> The AT&T AST version of the "pathchk" utility provides support for the
> following additional options found commonly in other
> implementations such as GNU and BSD:
> -- snip --
> --portability (same as existing "-p" option)
> -P
> --man, --html, --nroff, --help, --version
> -- snip --
> The stability of the "/usr/bin/pathchk" command and built-in
> command-line interface (including the new options) and system
> variables documented in pathchk(1) and specified by IEEE
> Std 1003.1-2008 is "Committed".
> For further information/specifications see the materials/-folder.
>
>
> #### Part 4: Enhancement of /usr/bin/tty
> The 4th part of this project specifies an enhancement to
> /usr/bin/tty based on the AT&T AST "tty" command.
> The AT&T AST version of the "tty" utility provides support for the
> following additional options found commonly in other
> implementations such as GNU and BSD:
> -- snip --
> --line-number (same as existing option "-l")
> --silent|quiet (same as existing "-s")
> --man, --html, --nroff, --help, --version
> -- snip --
> The stability of the "/usr/bin/tty" command and built-in
> command-line interface (including the new options) and system
> variables documented in tty(1) and specified by IEEE
> Std 1003.1-2008 is "Committed".
> For further information/specifications see the materials/-folder.
>
> 6. Resources and Schedule
> 6.4. Steering Committee requested information
> 6.4.1. Consolidation C-team Name:
> ON
> 6.5. ARC review type: FastTrack
> 6.6. ARC Exposure: open
>
>
