[M3devel] wierdness around user overrides vs. uname in sysinfo.sh?‏

[Olaf Wagner]

Quoting Jay <jayk123 at hotmail.com>:

>
> [another tactic attempted...]
>
> ----------------------------------------
>> From: jayk123 at hotmail.com
>> To: jayk123 at hotmail.com
>> Subject: test
>> Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2007 11:15:58 +0000
>>
>>
>> I wanted to change upgrade.sh to have the following features:
>>
>> 1) optionally skip building m3cc, since it is the slowest part

   export OMIT_GCC=yes

will do just that for all shell scripts, IIRC.

>> 2) optionally clean between various steps, as was apparently   
>> necessary for me

It should not be difficult to add that. Something like

   . "$ROOT/scripts/do-cm3-core.sh" realclean || exit 1

should do the trick.

>> I really cannot hack sh though. Sorry. I've tried several times   
>> through the years.
>> I just can't stand these languages where pretty much everything is a string.
>> e.g. sh, Tcl, cmd.
>> I admit hypocrisy in that I can and have hacked cmd.
>>
>> So I started rewriting scripts/* in Python.
>> I'm not going to delete scripts/*.sh or anything THAT obnoxious (and get my
>> access revoked), just add a new scripts/python directory.
>> Tempting to call it scripts/jay.
>> I'm making good progess here.

No harm in that. You may either put the python scripts beside the shell
scripts and simply call them *.py, or put them in a subdirectory
python or py. Don't call it Jay.

>> Actually I started with Perl, which I have more experience with, but
>> it was frustrating and...
>>
>> Anyway, so the real point here is, I'm reading scripts/* fairly closely.
>>
>> I'd like to at times bounce my interpretation off folks.
>>
>> In particular, I detect some massive wierdness.
>>
>> Most variables can be set by the caller.
>> I assume that is mostly meant for the user to override things.
>> I agree that is mostly a good thing.
>>
>> However it seems often data is derived, and then later overrides   
>> can kick in.

These are just some simple and useful scripts for maintenance; there
was never an overall system design.

>> In particular, sysinfo.sh sets, e.g. M3OSTYPE and other data based on uname.
>> And it sets CM3_TARGET.
>> But TARGET is then set via the user override, or CM3_TARGET if no   
>> user override.
>>
>> I draw one of two conclusions:
>>
>> If a user sets TARGET, such as for a cross build, then user darn well better
>> set other variables manually to.
>>
>> OR sysinfo.sh ought to check for TARGET being set, and derive data   
>> from that.
>> It should check preset TARGET or uname, not both.
>>
>> I'm just going to leave it alone.

If you find obvious inconsistencies or mistakes, don't hesitate to
suggest a correction.

>> Presumably mostly the overrides are never set.
>> They are mainly for cross builds and/or bringing up new targets probably.

Cross building is the usual way of porting the compiler to a new
target, so it's done more often than you might assume. I've done it
lots of times.

>> There aren't THAT MANY variables anyway.
>> Many could be removed, such as TAR, GREP, CM3*SEARCHPATH, etc.
>> Some are only for Win32.
>>
>> Maybe after this I'll try rewriting scripts in Quake. :)

That would be interesting, too. But don't forget that all these
scripts are just more or less simple tools for installation and
maintenance; the important asset is in all the M3 code.

Olaf
-- 
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