[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread] 

List:       busybox
Subject:    Re: [BusyBox] [PATCH] On-line help for make
From:       Stewart Brodie <stewart.brodie () pace ! co ! uk>
Date:       2002-09-30 7:21:03
[Download RAW message or body]

In message <3D8CDE75.1000901@labyrinth.net.au>
          Steven Merrifield <steve@labyrinth.net.au> wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> Here is a patch against the development CVS that adds on-line help to
> "make config" and "make menuconfig".
> 
> I have included a short description for about 160 applets, but have
> not gone into great detail. I have only created help screens for the
> applet, and not for each individual applet feature. (ie, CONFIG_FOO,
> and not CONFIG_FEATURE_FOO) I think that the applet features are
> already adequately described by the config script, and the help screen
> would simply be a copy-and-paste of the menu option.
> 
> Feel free to add/change the descriptions.  I think a first-timer to
> busybox, who needed some assistance, and began selecting the <help>
> button would be rather disappointed. At least now, some help is better
> than no help at all.

Last month, I wrote a script to extract the usage messages from usage.h and
automatically update Configure.help with that information - for exactly the
same reason.   At the time, I just e-mailed it to Erik because I was about to
go on holiday and didn't want to miss any feedback on the mailing list.  I
have now made it available at <URL:https://www.support.pace.co.uk/~sbrodie/>
as it's too large to post here (it's a 9K bash script - documentation all
in the comments).

After it has been run to update docs/Configure.help, pressing '?' whilst
running "make menuconfig" will show the full usage message(s) for the applet
concerned.  If an applet's usage message is affected by other config options,
then it shows both the basic usage and the full usage that is obtained by
using no and all config options respectively.

I imagine that it would be used whenever include/usage.h or
sysdeps/linux/defconfig was changed.  It would best be done in the
makefile when "make menuconfig" is executed.

At the moment, from the top level of Busybox, you have to run:

  scripts/mkhelp sysdeps/linux/defconfig
  
(obviously having downloaded the script and saved it as scripts/mkhelp and
marked it executable).  It reads .config plus any files specified on the
command-line to find out what applets exist.

I did wonder about adding a new class of #define to usage.h which were
specifically for my mkhelp script to use to provide the basic textual
description of each applet, but I didn't fancy writing the text - but you
(Steven) have :-)   If we could take your text and put them in appropriate
named macros in usage.h, then that could be automated too.

-- 
Stewart Brodie, Senior Software Engineer
Pace Micro Technology PLC
645 Newmarket Road
Cambridge, CB5 8PB, United Kingdom         WWW: http://www.pacemicro.com/

[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread]