Re: libfile-which-perl: package description
Martin Eberhard Schauer wrote:
> I believe rewording the description (1) will make it better comprehensible.
>
> Description: Perl module for searching paths for executable programs
> File::Which searches directories of a user's PATH (as returned by File::Spec)
> and looks for executable files having the name specified as a parameter to
> which(), simulating the behaviour of the standard `which' program.
Do you mean you were having trouble with the syntax, and the ambiguity
about which of the previously mentioned goings-on was being referred
to as "simulating the behaviour of the standard `which' program"? Or
is it the content that's a problem?
> Obiously we find upstream's (2) wording:
>
> DESCRIPTION
> File::Which was created to be able to get the paths to executable
> programs on systems under which the `which' program wasn't
> implemented in the shell.
"Implemented in the shell" seems (from the description below) to be a
factual error not present in the Debian package description's account.
The only shell I know of with a "which" builtin is zsh, but if that's
missing Perl would be perfectly capable of using /usr/bin/which
(provided by the Essential package debianutils).
> ** File::Which searches the directories of the user's PATH (as
> returned by File::Spec->path()), looking for executable files having
> the name specified as a parameter to which(). ** Under Win32
> systems, which do not have a notion of directly executable files,
> but uses special extensions such as .exe and .bat to identify them,
> File::Which takes extra steps to assure that you will find the
> correct file (so for example, you might be searching for perl, it'll
> try perl.exe, perl.bat, etc.)
So it's a safety-net to ensure the availability of a command that on
Debian is guaranteed to be available anyway? In other words, it's a
module that exists only so that it can be listed in the dependencies
of software that wants to have the same dependencies on Windows and
Linux? If so, it might be helpful if the package description said so.
> The way I understand the description, the following might be an alternative
Turning it round this way should remove the ambiguity mentioned above,
yes.
> File::Which simulates the behavior of the standard 'which' program: it
> searches directories of a user's PATH (as returned by File::Spec)
> and looks for executable files.
It doesn't just return success if it finds any executables in PATH
directories; it looks for particular command names. You might
abbreviate it to "looking for executable files matching a given name",
though.
--
JBR with qualifications in linguistics, experience as a Debian
sysadmin, and probably no clue about this particular package
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