Re: Status of install-info

[Ian Zimmerman <nobrowser@gmail.com>]

joey> dh_installinfo is able to determine the section of an info page by
joey> looking at the content of the info file, and is able to determine
joey> which file is the main file in a collection of info files by
joey> looking at the filenames. This is all the info it needs to pass to
joey> install-info, and it can all be found by just examining the files.

joey> So why not just let install-info look at all the installed info
joey> files, find the above data on its own, and generate the info dir
joey> based on that?  This would eliminate a lot of the possible
joey> problems with removing entries correctly, and would be very simple
joey> as it would need to store no external state, and could simply
joey> regenerate the info dir from scratch each time instead of the
joey> error-prone editing it in place that install-info does now.

I had the same thought.  But I am afraid not all info files embed the
metadata.  For example, the (nonfree) package ocaml-doc contains an info
file that doesn't.  And in any case the --section=foo command line
argument means that install-info must be able to override it.

Good to see such a dpkg authority jump in :-)

-- 
A true pessimist won't be discouraged by a little success.