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Re: future of dhelp



On 21 Feb 2003 19:08:40 -0600
Adam DiCarlo <adam@onshored.com> wrote:

> <daniel.nouri@con-fuse.org> writes:
> 
> > Is the doc-base files' format likely to change?
> 
> Yes.  Inevitable that it would change in fact.  It will always be an
> RFC822 style format though (field: value).  I could do versioning on
> the file format such that it can convert from file version 2 to file
> version 1, as necessary.
> 
> > > Anyhow, this hook mechanism would mean that doc-base doesn't have to
> > > know about dhelp or anything -- it just triggers the hooks and that
> > > dhelp stuff is properly delegated out.
> 
> > >From what I understand, doc-base itself is currently being
> > notified whenever a package installs or removes documents
> > from the system. (At least that should be the case.) Am
> > I right?
> 
> Yes.  To register a file at all, you must call 'install-docs -i ...'.
> 
> > If that is the case, I agree with you. However, I lack of
> > ideas there... Will dhelp register itself with some script
> > (hook) upon installation - so that it will be notified by
> > doc-base without doc-base actually knowing that there is
> > a dhelp?
> 
> Yes.  That's easy enough.  Here's a pass.
> 
> I provide a /usr/lib/doc-base/hooks directory.  Each file in there
> should be an executable (script or compiled program) that takes a few
> different first arguments (install, remove, version, possibly
> 'update').
> 
> If called as "/usr/lib/doc-base/hooks/program version" the program
> returns an integer, what version do I understand.
> 
> If called as "/usr/lib/doc-base/hooks/program
> {install,remove,upgrade}" it will accept one or more doc-base file in
> the format that it understands in stdin (we'll have to figure out a
> file separator for separate doc-base files passed all at once).
> 
> How does this simple first-cut sound?

Sounds good and flexible IMHO. Maybe doc-base can provide a parser
class for it as well to avoid that every program needs to reinvent
the wheel.

Bye
     Racke



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