Paul Eggert wrote:
c) Adding to configure the option "--enable-scripts=no" to disable
building and installation of the "zscripts" (zcat, zcmp, zdiff,
zgrep), without any "gzscripts" (gzcat, gzcmp, gzdiff, gzgrep)
replacing them.
Something like that, yes, but it's not clear that's exactly
right, from the gzip point of view. There are many scripts:
why pick just those four?
Because those four programs are provided by zutils. Zutils also include
zegrep and zfgrep (sorry, I forgot to mention them before), but I hope
to get rid of them someday as the corresponding egrep and fgrep programs
are deprecated[1].
[1] http://www.gnu.org/software/grep/manual/grep.html#grep-Programs
"In addition, two variant programs egrep and fgrep are available. egrep
is the same as 'grep -E'. fgrep is the same as 'grep -F'. Direct
invocation as either egrep or fgrep is deprecated, but is provided to
allow historical applications that rely on them to run unmodified."
Here's the complete list:
gunzip zcat zdiff zfgrep zgrep zmore
gzexe uncompress zcmp zegrep zforce zless znew
Zcat, zcmp, zdiff, zgrep, zegrep and zfgrep are the only programs from
gzip conflicting with those of zutils. I think the other gzip scripts
can continue to be distributed with gzip just as they are now. (Perhaps
zless and zmore could be dropped given that there already exist
multi-format lesspipe[2][3] scripts.
[2] http://www-zeuthen.desy.de/~friebel/unix/lesspipe.html
[3] http://packages.debian.org/sid/less
Perhaps the operand of --enable-scripts should list just
the scripts wanted (or conversely, the operand of --disable-scripts
should list just those scripts not wanted). Or it could give
a shell pattern for the script names. (I'm just thinking out
loud here. I haven't thought through how this would interact
with --program-transform-name.)
This sounds rather complicated. More so if a complementary
--enable-programs list have to be passed to zutils. I would prefer a
single option disabling the six scripts in gzip. I doubt many users will
need to be so selective.
More generally, why does the installer care which programs
are scripts and which are not? So perhaps the option should
be --enable-programs instead of --enable-scripts.
I'll be happy with any name you choose for the option. :-)
