Re: Optimize script for generating LinuxManBook.pdf

[Deri <deri@chuzzlewit.myzen.co.uk>]

On Wednesday, 22 November 2023 14:58:56 GMT Alejandro Colomar wrote:
> Hi Deri,
> 
> I've optimized from 18.5 s down to 16.3 s the script, by splitting the
> pipeline with this wrapper (and slightly reducing the perl script to
> just print the pages to stdout).  BTW, now it can be run from any
> directory.  And every step can be debugged by just introducing
> 
> | tee /dev/tty \
> 
> wherever you want to debug.  It's all pushed to master.
> 
> The PDF is now printed to stdout, to avoid hard-coding file names.
> 
> I still need to split a bit more and reduce the longest lines.  How does
> this script look to you?
> 
> Cheers,
> Alex :-)
> 

Hi Alex,

It looks fine, although you have to run the code in 
"prepare_linux_man_book.pl" twice (to avoid using a temporary file). If you 
are going to run preconv it is best to run it first - stops pic spitting out 
loads of warnings. You also dropped one stage in second pass, no pic in the 
pipeline. This may explain part of the speedup you observed. I don't know if 
any of your man pages require pic but they could in the future. The changes I 
would advise are:-

--- a/scripts/LinuxManBook/build_linux_man_book.sh
+++ b/scripts/LinuxManBook/build_linux_man_book.sh
@@ -4,8 +4,8 @@
 
 (
        "$(dirname "$0")"/prepare_linux_man_book.pl "$1" \
-       | pic \
        | preconv \
+       | pic \
        | tbl \
        | eqn -Tpdf \
        | troff -Tpdf -dPDF.EXPORT=1 -dLABEL.REFS=1 -dpaper=a4 \
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
        "$(dirname "$0")"/prepare_linux_man_book.pl "$1";
 ) \
 | preconv \
+| pic \
 | tbl \
 | eqn -Tpdf \
 | (

Cheers

Deri