Why slack-desc has such a complex structure?

Hi,

Pun intended ;-)

Question: why slack-desc isn't simply text file that could be cat, but actually has to be grepped?

--
Best regards,
Andrzej Telszewski

Unauthorized answer: this makes easier to check:

• The lines' count
• The lines' length
• That the lines begin with a <space> or are empty
• The package's name

However, it is of course possible to use an other format and convert the text to meet the specs, and even to include the slack-desc in a SLKBUILD, as expected by slkbuild:

#Maintainer: George Vlahavas (email hidden by Didier)

pkgname=slkbuild
pkgver=1.2
pkgrel=1slint
arch=noarch
source=(slkbuild-$pkgver.tar.xz)
options=('nosrcpack')

slackdesc=\
(
#|-----handy-ruler------------------------------------------------------|
"slkbuild (arch-like wrapper script for easy packaging)"
"slkbuild is a script inspired by makepkg from Arch which greatly"
"simplifies the package building process in Slackware and derivatives."
"It parses an easy to create SLKBUILD meta-file and from that creates"
"slackware packages."
)


build() {
	cd $startdir/src/$pkgname-$pkgver
	make
	make install DESTDIR=$startdir/pkg PREFIX=/usr
}

TIP: to avoid an UUOC, instead of

cat myfile|program

use

$(<myfile) program

Originally Posted by Didier Spaier TIP: to avoid an UUOC, instead of cat myfile|program use $(<myfile) program

To those who were curious what UUOC is like I was, it stands for "Useless Use Of Cat". Basically stating that there are simpler methods for displaying the contents of a file (cat is designed to concatenate two or more files together... it just displays a single file as a byproduct).

However, Didier's command, $(<myfile) program, takes much more effort to type, so I'll probably continue using cat "uselessly"

Originally Posted by bassmadrigal To those who were curious what UUOC is like I was, it stands for "Useless Use Of Cat". Basically stating that there are simpler methods for displaying the contents of a file (cat is designed to concatenate two or more files together... it just displays a single file as a byproduct). However, Didier's command, $(<myfile) program, takes much more effort to type, so I'll probably continue using cat "uselessly"

Furthermore, it is a butt-ugly command. I prefer the useless use of cat anytime in the name of readability.

There is also the consideration that its not portable for every shell. For example it does not seem to work in the ash shell provided with Slackware.

Hi,

You guys are driving MY OWN PERSONAL thread away from its original topic :-(

--
Best regards,
Andrzej Telszewski

I think it should be XML with a full XSD.


Runs for his very life....

Richard, even better: make them binary and use a slack-descctl program to edit/view them. :-o

To answer the question, I always figured it was just to make it easier to format correctly when typing it.

Originally Posted by atelszewski Hi, You guys are driving MY OWN PERSONAL thread away from its original topic :-( -- Best regards, Andrzej Telszewski

Well your original question made less sense than most of the replies.