Hi,
Steve Kemp wrote:
> [...]
> --cut--
>
> INSTALLATION METHODS
> The new guest images may be installed in several different ways:
>
> 1. With the B<debootstrap> command.
> 2. With the B<rpmstrap> command.
> 3. By copying an existing installation.
> 4. By untarring a file containing a previous installation.
>
> These different methods can be selected by either the command line
> arguments, or settings in the configuration file.
>
> --cut--
>
> (Hmm that should be "--debootstrap" option", and "--rpmstrap option"
> respectively. Will update that.)
Got me, maybe I didn't read the manual concentrated enough - it was
late. (But that's a good usability test for 99% of the users...)
I think a user can (and will) expect that, under most but very special
circumstances, the commands listed in the "EXAMPLES" section should just
work. I often only browse to that section and just copy and paste these
commands ...
Other Programs tell very esily in the usage section which options are
optional and which not.
For example debootstrap:
SYNOPSIS
debootstrap [OPTION...] SUITE TARGET [MIRROR [SCRIPT]]
debootstrap [OPTION...] --second-stage
You see at a glance that SUITE and TARGET are required.
xem-create disc has a SYNOPSIS section which looks like the options list
in other manpages, while nearly the same, just slightly more verbose
info is repeated again in the OPTIONS section.
Only that I find the OPTIONS section much lesse redable, because it's
one long piece of text, without any indentation or paragraphs.
(but that's maybe another wishlist documdentation bug - should I file it?)
BTW, while reading it: debootstrap|rpmstrap|copy could be listed in the
mandatory options section, also, but your proposal below is better
anyway - I think making the code better is always preferable over
documenting :)
> [...]
> I will update the code to ensure at least one option is supplied for
> the installation method, which I will regard as closing this bug.
>
> (ie in your example it would output a message and exit:
>
> "please choose one of the following options:
> --debootstrap - Install with debootstrap
> --rpmstrap - Install the dist with rpmstrap
> --copy - Copy from the selected directory .. etc")
Yeah, that's the best solution, even better than any documentation :)
>
> However I disagree utterly with the "major tweaking", because this
> option could be specified in the configuration file as the comments
> indicate.
>
With the major tweaking I more thought of that it's much too hard to
find how it works. I don't care much about the importance level of the
bug, as you are about to fix it anyway.
> I have to assume that people attempting to use software will examine
> the configuration file. Otherwise you could claim that apt-get is
> broken because the default configuration file doesn't point to a
> local mirror without "major tweaking".
I think this assumption is wrong, in my opionion. Because xen-tools
looks like a very simple tool to use where only at a second or third
glance you realize that there's a config file to study.
> .. still I'm glad you got it working now :)
Nice, even the rpmstrap installation of centos was a cheer. Thanks for
building that nice tool!
Henning
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