From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Thomas Petazzoni Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2016 21:58:22 +0100 Subject: [Buildroot] [PATCH 5/8] linux: add the generic help rules In-Reply-To: <20160310203438.GF3424@free.fr> References: <56E0B5F5.9040109@mind.be> <3817786.Ntra8H592Z@sagittea> <20160310103934.0aaef6d1@free-electrons.com> <20160310203438.GF3424@free.fr> Message-ID: <20160310215822.5ac5f1c5@free-electrons.com> List-Id: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit To: buildroot@busybox.net Hello, On Thu, 10 Mar 2016 21:34:38 +0100, Yann E. MORIN wrote: > > +define BUSYBOX_HELP > > + @echo ' busybox-baz - do stuff' > > +endef > > There is one thing here that bothers me: duplicating the layout of the > help text in that many locations. > > Having the macro be used means we can change that layout (e.g. to > accomodate for larger rules) in a single place, and > magically^Wautomatically see all the help texts all properly indented > at once. How often have we changed this layout over the years? I'd say probably never. So why bother? > > +HELP_HOOKS += BUSYBOX_HELP > > To be done in pkg-generic, of course. ;-) Well, if we are to do this in pkg-generic, then we should also do it for TARGET_FINALIZE_HOOKS (but I agree it would be good idea). > > This way, it is just a function call, and the package, or external.mk > > can do whatever it wants in terms of formatting the help text. > > Including iterating on variables, showing the contents of a file, or > > whatever. > > Well, remember that all this is *only* about documented the > package-specific rules, not any arbitrary package help. > > Do we want to allow for any arbitrary package help? No; please, no. Of course we want. And just like any other thing in Buildroot, bad things will not creep into the main tree because we review stuff. It is *trivial* to realize that a bad help text is being added, much more than many other things that we already have to check when reviewing patches. Thomas -- Thomas Petazzoni, CTO, Free Electrons Embedded Linux, Kernel and Android engineering http://free-electrons.com