[Toybox] ?from left field

[Isaac Dunham]

On Tue, Oct 21, 2014 at 09:06:03PM +1100, scsijon wrote:
> 
> On 10/21/2014 02:52 PM, Isaac Dunham wrote:
> >On Mon, Oct 20, 2014 at 11:47:32AM -0500, Rob Landley wrote:
> >>On 10/20/14 01:50, Isaac Dunham wrote:
> >>>On Mon, Oct 20, 2014 at 01:17:44PM +1100, scsijon wrote:
> >>>>I was wondering if toybox 'could / would be able to' have an auto tool built
> >>>>into it. I'm not a coder, so can't do it, but....
> >>>>
> >>>>Along the line of:
> >>>>--
> >>>>If toybox had the command 'siliswap' built into it, but it's inbuilt
> >>>>siliswap was a subset of the full 'siliswap' command and it's complete set
> >>>>of switches, as for most people and programs it doesn't need the others.
> >>>>
> >>>>If at a later stage, the user needs to install the full 'siliswap' package
> >>>>because they need to use switches that are not built into toybox's
> >>>>'siliswap' then toybox's 'siliswap' knows to pass the request onto the full
> >>>>siliswap instead of dealing with it itself.
> >>>>--
> >>>>Not sure if it could be added without a shell file though and i'd prefer not
> >>>>to add to the default set. ?or could these be created automatically when
> >>>>toybox is first run, against all inbuilt packages, or manually with a toybox
> >>>>-cfg command).
> >>>>
> >>>>And of course, toybox doesn't have or needs siliswap (it's a very old IBM
> >>>>Mainframe silo interface command), i'm not sure it is even used anymore.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>1. Rob keeps talking about simplicity...this doesn't sound very simple.
> >>>It also doesn't sound small--which defeats the point of implementing a
> >>>subset.
> >>
> >>A lot of simplicity is how you look at the problem. :)
> >>
> >>In this case, xexec() tries the builtin version, then falls back to
> >>exec. If you add a path to your command, it never tries the builtin
> >>version. So "/bin/echo" will always try to exec. That's the current
> >>behavior.
> >
> >>When execing, the symlinks can be replaced after the fact. Even if
> >>"echo" is built into toybox, if /bin/echo isn't a symlink pointing to
> >>toybox then running it will run something else. You can delete the old
> >>symlink and replace it with whatever you want to add to the system.
> >>(This flexibility is intentional, and again is the current behavior.)
> >
> >I understood the request somewhat differently, partly due to some
> >discussions on the Puppy Linux forums (where scsijon is also a member).
> >(I may have misunderstood, though.)
> >
> >Puppy Linux provides both full and Busybox versions of many commands,
> >with a "wrapper" script that will call either the full or the Busybox
> >version, depending on the arguments.
> >The *theory* is that it speeds things up if you only need Busybox.
> >(In practice, it slows everything down.)
> >I'd read scsijon's request as asking for something rather like that,
> >so that (a) toybox handles a call by default, and (b) any options we
> >can't handle get passed to "the full version".
> >
> >Rereading it, I get the impression that he's asking for "prefer external
> >but fall back to applets if that fails"; but maybe you're reading it right.
> >
> >
> >Thanks,
> >Isaac Dunham
> >
> What I think I'm considering is basically (b), that if the full command has
> been installed, it will be used for 'switches that toybox can't handle,
> allowing that the output structure 'may' be different to toybox's or
> busybox's; (shouldn't happen but...). If the full package has not been
> installed toybox's version of the command will be tried first when toybox is
> installed, otherwise it will try to use busybox's version (of course that
> has to be installed) if the command is not in toybox, OR as a failsafe it
> ERRORS to tell the user they need the full package or the switch 'is missing
> or wrong' (typo's come to mind).

Does "always search $PATH" work well enough?
The theory here is that you would install toybox with links, and the
full command would replace a link to toybox.

> however, for now,
> regards to all
> jon

Thanks,
Isaac Dunham

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