Bug#793651: RFS: hdump/2.3-1 [ITP] -- Hexadecimal and ASCII dumper for binary files
I don't intend to upload this package, but here's my review:
* Paulo <kretcheu@gmail.com>, 2015-07-25, 21:16:
http://mentors.debian.net/debian/pool/main/h/hdump/hdump_2.3-1.dsc
The package description reads:
Description: Hexadecimal and ASCII dumper for binary files
The synopsis is not a sentence, so no need to start it with a capital
letter. (Developer's Reference §6.2.2)
Fast and simple hexadecimal/ASCII dumper for binary files,
OTOH, the long description should consist of full sentences.
(Developer's Reference §6.2.3)
written in ANSI C.
That's not something end users care, so I don't think it should belong
in the package description.
- Multi-platform (tested on GNU/Linux and Windows).
Again, not relevant for end users.
- Specify the initial byte (-b). Supports hex notation.
Huh, what? There's no such option. (Not that I know what it would be
useful for...)
- Define numbers of bytes (-n). Multiple of the number of columns.
I don't understand what the second sentence is supposed to mean.
The patch header reads:
Description: fix some issues in upstream Makefile to hardening.
That's not very informative. I would have no idea what this patch does
without reading the actual diff.
Also, please forward the patch upstream.
The Makefile passes both -W and -Wextra to gcc, even though -W is just
an obsolete alias for -W.
I think fsprintf might be a typo.
debian/manpage/genallman.sh ignores all errors. (Although you don't use
it debian/rules, so meh...)
The manpage, like the package description, says something about ANSI C,
the mysterious -b option, and "multiple of the number of columns".
man-pages(7) strongly discourages AUTHORS sections, and so do I.
I find the "for the Debian project (but may be used by others)" part
particularly silly.
Upstream changelog reads:
- Fixed compilation failure due misuse of fsprintf() function.
Lintian says:
X: hdump: binary-file-built-without-LFS-support usr/bin/hdump
And indeed, the program doesn't support files bigger an 2GB on 32-bit
architectures:
$ truncate -s 3G foo
$ hdump foo
file not found or not readable
The program ignores read and write errors:
$ hdump README.md > /dev/full
$ echo $?
0
$ hdump /proc/self/mem
$ echo $?
0
If you provide an option, but not the path, it treats the last argument
as path:
$ hdump -c 0
file not found or not readable
You can't dump non-seekable files:
$ echo foo | hdump /dev/stdin
unable to seek through file
[ This review was written for the debian-mentors mailing list (but may be
read by others). ;-) ]
--
Jakub Wilk
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