[gentoo-dev] Re: RFC: intel-sdp-r1.eclass

[Ryan Hill]

On Mon, 15 Feb 2016 15:35:12 +0100
Michał Górny <mgorny@g.o> wrote:
> On Mon, 15 Feb 2016 14:37:41 +0100
> "Justin Lecher (jlec)" <jlec@g.o> wrote:
> > On 15/02/16 13:59, Michał Górny wrote:
> > > On Mon, 15 Feb 2016 09:16:53 +0100
> > > "Justin Lecher (jlec)" <jlec@g.o> wrote:
> > >> _isdp_big-warning() {
> > >> 	debug-print-function ${FUNCNAME} "${@}"
> > >> 	case ${1} in
> > >> 		pre-check )
> > >> 			echo ""
> > > Don't mix echo with ewarn.
> > Why?
> Because they won't go through the same output channels.

That's kinda the point.  You want a blank (unstarred) space
to separate out the "important" messages from the generic
spew put out by the package manager/eclasses/build system
that you have no control over.

If you have several different messages you want a blank space
in between them so you can use e* to create whitespace within
the message to avoid the wall of text syndrome while still
making it clear where it begins and ends.

Let's take openrc for example (not picking on anyone, it's just
the last package with a bunch of different post-install messages
I happened to emerge).

Currently:

 * The OpenRC dependency data has already been migrated.
 * Caching service dependencies ... [ ok ]
 * In this version of OpenRC, the loopback interface no longer
 * satisfies the net virtual.
 * If you have services now which do not start because of this,
 * They can be fixed by adding rc_need="!net"
 * to the /etc/conf.d/<servicename> file.
 * You should also file a bug against the service asking that
 * need net be dropped from the dependencies.
 * The bug you file should block the following tracker:
 * https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=439092
 * 
 * Bug https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=427996 was not
 * fixed correctly in earlier versions of OpenRC.
 * The correct fix is implemented in this version, but that
 * means netmount needs to be added to the default runlevel if
 * you are using nfs file systems.
 * 
 * You should now update all files in /etc, using etc-update
 * or equivalent before restarting any services or this host.

This is pretty much unreadable to me.

Better:

 * The OpenRC dependency data has already been migrated.
 * Caching service dependencies ... [ ok ]
 *
 * In this version of OpenRC, the loopback interface no longer
 * satisfies the net virtual.
 *
 * If you have services now which do not start because of this,
 * They can be fixed by adding rc_need="!net"
 * to the /etc/conf.d/<servicename> file.
 *
 * You should also file a bug against the service asking that
 * need net be dropped from the dependencies.
 *
 * The bug you file should block the following tracker:
 * https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=439092
 * 
 * Bug https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=427996 was not
 * fixed correctly in earlier versions of OpenRC.
 *
 * The correct fix is implemented in this version, but that
 * means netmount needs to be added to the default runlevel if
 * you are using nfs file systems.
 * 
 * You should now update all files in /etc, using etc-update
 * or equivalent before restarting any services or this host.

This is better but you still have to read the whole thing to
make sure you didn't miss anything important.

Even better:

 * The OpenRC dependency data has already been migrated.
 * Caching service dependencies ... [ ok ]

 * In this version of OpenRC, the loopback interface no longer
 * satisfies the net virtual.
 *
 * If you have services now which do not start because of this,
 * They can be fixed by adding rc_need="!net"
 * to the /etc/conf.d/<servicename> file.
 *
 * You should also file a bug against the service asking that
 * need net be dropped from the dependencies.
 * The bug you file should block the following tracker:
 *
 * https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=439092
 
 * Bug https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=427996 was not
 * fixed correctly in earlier versions of OpenRC.
 *
 * The correct fix is implemented in this version, but that
 * means netmount needs to be added to the default runlevel if
 * you are using nfs file systems.
 
 * You should now update all files in /etc, using etc-update
 * or equivalent before restarting any services or this host.

Here I can read the first line of the second block and know I can
skip the next 12 lines without missing anything.  The next block
isn't worded the greatest, but that's beside the point.  And now
I get an important message at the end that I previously never 
noticed because tl;dr.

You're right that using echo means the whitespace doesn't get
saved by the elog system.  A while back someone proposed we
add espace for exactly this reason but IIRC they were laughed
down, which is a shame.

--