Re: [PATCH] Texinfo: inconsistent behavior: cmd line vs. env

[Bogdan]

Gavin Smith <gavinsmith0123@gmail.com>, Thu Mar 23 2023 20:25:27 
GMT+0100 (Central European Standard Time)
> On Thu, Mar 23, 2023 at 05:57:58PM +0100, Bogdan wrote:
> > > There is still the minor question of what should happen if
> > > TEXI2DVI_BUILD_DIRECTORY is set to '.' (the default).  Since this is the
> > > default value, it doesn't seem right that explicitly setting
> > > TEXI2DVI_BUILD_DIRECTORY=. in the environment should change the
> > > behaviour of texi2dvi.
> >
> >
> >   I *was* thinking about this, too. On the other hand, if the user gives
> > "--build-dir=.", it *would* imply --tidy, even though this is the default.
> > The sole presence of the switch changes the behaviour.
>
> It occured to me that we didn't have to make '.' the default value.  We
> can make the default value empty and avoid this as a special case.  The
> build_dir variable is not used that much in the program, so it is easy
> to accommodate a change in default value.


 Probably even better. When specifying a build directory, give an 
actual value. If you want just --tidy and use the default directory 
name, write just --tidy. Makes sense :).

[...]


> > > Hence, I propose the following patch:
>
> Here's an updated patch:


[...]


> @@ -151,12 +151,7 @@ Build modes:
>         --tidy           same as --build=tidy
>     -c, --clean          same as --build=clean
>         --build-dir=DIR  specify where the tidy compilation is performed;
> -                         implies --tidy;
> -                         defaults to TEXI2DVI_BUILD_DIRECTORY [$build_dir]
> -
> -The MODE specifies where the TeX compilation takes place, and, as a
> -consequence, how auxiliary files are treated.  The build mode can also
> -be set using the environment variable TEXI2DVI_BUILD_MODE.


 I suppose the first sentence in the above removed block is still 
correct, so it could stay (but doesn't need to).
 "Tidy compilation" sounds maybe a bit strange. But "compilation in 
tidy mode" or "TeX compilation in tidy mode" are probably too long. 
Maybe "tidy build"? But, I'm not insisting. The user probably knows 
what this means anyway.

 [Snip the rest of the patch - agreed]


> >   Remember also about the help message:
> >
> > "
> >        --build-dir=DIR  specify where the tidy compilation is performed;
> >                           implies --tidy;
> >                           defaults to TEXI2DVI_BUILD_DIRECTORY [$build_dir]
> >
> > "
> >
> > For some reason, it was made so that passing --build-dir implies --tidy...
> > But, maybe just for the non-default values, as I wrote above ("external
> > directories").
>
> It's slightly more complicated than it needs to be due to the
> indirection through TEXI2DVI_BUILD_DIRECTORY.  I've reworded this in the
> patch above.
>
> >   From a user's point of view - looks fine. Generally, I have nothing against
> > your change.
> >   Since I began playing with fixing Automake I'm just worried if its tests
> > would need to pass --tidy now, which wasn't present in the older versions,
> > so what do we do now to have a command line that works with all versions
> > (maybe except really ancient ones)?
> > But it seems we're always passing a directory which isn't ".", so hopefully
> > it will work.
>
> In the new patch above "." is no longer a special case.


 Sounds fine, thank you!

--
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