invocation. Specifically, "top-load" your arguments and in the order in-
which they will be displayed. For example, many [if not all] widgets display
information in the following order, top-to-bottom (visually):
+ backtitle (displayed behind the widget at top-left)
+ title (at the top of the `window')
+ prompt text (just below the title and above whatever widget you choose)
+ Depending on widget, _one_ of the following:
- menu list
- radio list
- check list
- text input box with initial text
- [Xdialog(1)] 2x or 3x text input boxes
- [dialog(1)] a multi-part form
- progress bar
- etc. (many more widget choices)
+ buttons (right below the selected widget)
+ [dialog(1)] the hline (displayed at bottom of `window')
NOTE: Xdialog(1) accepts and silently ignores --hline
When building local arguments for your dialog invocation, if the value can't
be cleanly loaded into a local, add "# Calculated below" to the end of the
local declaration while retaining the block order of argument declarations.
Move other local declarations that are not associated with this top-loading
the dialog arguments to right-above where they are first-used.
Also, standardize on the names of the arguments. For example, always use
$prompt (instead of sometimes $msg and sometimes $prompt); use $menu_list
or $shell_list or $radio_list for those respective widgets; ad nauseum.
While we're doing this, flush-out full arguments for many invocations that
were passing NULL strings (making it unapparent if you were staring at this
one invocation what argument that NULL string was supposed to represent).
Last, while we're in startup/rcconf let's remove the unnecessary use of a
GLOBAL (RCCONF_MENU_LIST) for the menu_list.
and f_dialog_default_fetch(). Operating similar to functions introduced by
SVN r251236 and r251242, these functions operate as a pair for helping track
the default-item data (for the --menu, --checklist, and --radiolist
widgets).
This replaces the direct usage of a global to store the data with an
abstract method for readability and to centralize the code.
retrieving stored data (for the --menu, --calendar, --timebox, --checklist,
and --radiolist widgets).
When we (Ron McDowell and I) developed the first version of bsdconfig, it
used temporary files to store responses from dialog(1). That hasn't been
true for some very long time, so the need to always store the return status
of dialog(1) and then call some function to clean-up is long-deprecated. The
function that used to do the clean-up was f_dialog_menutag().
We really don't need f_dialog_menutag() for its originally designed purpose,
as all dialog invocations (even when in a sub-shell) do not use temporary
files anymore.
However, we do need to keep f_dialog_menutag() around because it still fills
the need of being able to abstract the procedure for fetching stored data
provided by functions that display the aforementioned widgets.
In re-designing f_dialog_menutag(), four important changes are made:
1. Rename f_dialog_menutag() to f_dialog_menutag_fetch()
2. Introduce the new first-argument of $var_to_set to reduce number of forks
3. Create a corresponding f_dialog_menutag_store() to abstract the storage
4. Offload the sanitization to a new function, f_dialog_data_sanitize()
NOTE: That last one is important. Not all functions need to store their data
for later fetching, meanwhile every invocation of dialog should be sanitized
(as we learned early-on in the i18n-effort -- underlying libraries will spit
warnings to stderr for bad values of $LANG and since dialog outputs its
responses to stderr, we need to sanitize every response of these warnings).
These changes greatly improve readbaility and also improve performance by
reducing unnecessary forking.
calculating widget sizes. Instead of forking a sub-shell to calculate the
optimum size for a widget, use a byRef style call-out to set variables in
the parent namespace. For example, instead of:
size=$( f_dialog_buttonbox_size title btitle msg )
$DIALOG --title title --backtitle btitle --msgbox msg $size
The new API replaces the above with the following:
f_dialog_buttonbox_size height width title btitle msg
$DIALOG --title title --backtitle btitle --msgbox msg $height $width
This reduces the number of forks, improves performance, and makes the code
more readable by revealing the argument-order for widget sizing. It also
makes performing minor adjustments to the calculated values easier as
you no longer have to split-out the response (which required knowledge of
ordering so was counter-intuitive).
a bug in which certain combinations of arguments produced unexpected results
such as `-dX' (now properly produces debugging and X11), `-XS' (now properly
produces X11 in secure mode), `-df-' (enables debugging when reading a
script from standard-input, etc. Multi-word variations such as `-d -X',
`-X -S', `-d -f-', `-d -f -', etc. also work as expected. Also tested were
variations in argument order, which are now working as expected.
possible to save keystrokes. Second, overhaul startup/rcdelete for much
improved performance. Last, but not least, kill-off useage of --clear
and implement --keep-tite in harmony to minimize jarring transitions.
Also, fix local variable names where necessary while we're here with
other minor comment-enhancements/typo-corrections.
improve debugging initialization. Also fixup USAGE statements while we're
here. Also, change initialization of main program to _not_ change working
directory, allowing the debugFile to be relative without confusion.
stable/9/usr.sbin/sysinstall/help/shortcuts.hlp (reproduced below):
If /usr/sbin/sysinstall is linked to another filename, say
`/usr/local/bin/configPackages', then the basename will be used
as an implicit command name.
To get a list of modules you can link to, see `bsdconfig -h' output.
Approved by: adrian (co-mentor) (implicit)
problem with using a msgbox was one of truncation in the case of Xdialog(1)
and lack of screen real-estate (since the msgbox is not scrollable in X11
while a textbox is).
The textbox renders the text much better and is more appropriate for this
type of data display.
Approved by: adrian (co-mentor) (implicit)
deprecated sysinstall(8). NOTE: WITH_BSDCONFIG is currently required.
Submitted by: Devin Teske (dteske), Ron McDowell <rcm@fuzzwad.org>
Reviewed by: Ron McDowell <rcm@fuzzwad.org>
Approved by: Ed Maste (emaste)
