'send-pr --database' is broken in 4.0 beta

'send-pr --database' is broken in 4.0 beta

[Mel Hatzis]

The send-pr program has a couple of bugs in it associated with
the '--database' option.

  1. invoking send-pr --database=xx doesn't work (a space is
     required between the '--database' and the 'xx'. Given
     the usage line, this is very misleading.

  2. the '--database' option in send-pr simply sets the GNATSDB
     environment variable to whatever value is specified. This
     is inconsistent with the use of the --database option in
     all the other gnats programs and furthermore, won't work
     at all...it ends up pointing to the 'default' database.

Regarding #2, I've previously mailed a few messages to the
group with the subject 'use of GNATSDB'....I'd really like
to see this working and will gladly submit a patch if
people are interested in my proposed solution - to use
a GNATSID environment variable in addition to GNATSDB.

GNATSID would be set to database names that are defined in
the databases file (e.g. GNATSID=otherdb) and GNATSDB will
continue to work as documented
(e.g GNATSDB=host:port:name:user:passwd)

Since the databases file can define a database as being
remote, the GNATSID variable will make it unecessary to
spell out the host/port...they're already defined in the
databases file.

Anyone have an opinion.

-Mel


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Re: 'send-pr --database' is broken in 4.0 beta

[Lars Henriksen]

On Tue, May 14, 2002 at 03:24:14PM -0700, Mel Hatzis wrote:

>  1. invoking send-pr --database=xx doesn't work (a space is
>     required between the '--database' and the 'xx'. Given
>     the usage line, this is very misleading.

There is some inconsistency in the way the GNATS user tools
send-pr, query-pr and edit-pr accept their arguments. Or rather
in their usage messages: they all expect a space, but only
send-pr says it wants an equal sign. So presumably the send-pr
usage message should be corrected.

The GNATS manual ("Keeping Track") section on send-pr (2.2.3
Invoking send-pr from the shell) has not yet been updated and
still documents version 3.113.

>  2. the '--database' option in send-pr simply sets the GNATSDB
>     environment variable to whatever value is specified. This
>     is inconsistent with the use of the --database option in
>     all the other gnats programs and furthermore, won't work
>     at all...it ends up pointing to the 'default' database.
> 
> Regarding #2, I've previously mailed a few messages to the
> group with the subject 'use of GNATSDB'....I'd really like
> to see this working and will gladly submit a patch if
> people are interested in my proposed solution - to use
> a GNATSID environment variable in addition to GNATSDB.

I've read your messages, but have not been able to reproduce the
behaviour you describe. I'll return to that in another mail.

> GNATSID would be set to database names that are defined in
> the databases file (e.g. GNATSID=otherdb) and GNATSDB will
> continue to work as documented
> (e.g GNATSDB=host:port:name:user:passwd)

I don't agree. GNATSDB is used in many places and in some contexts
only the local database name is meaningful, e.g. gnatsd and gen-index.
Sure, GNATSDB has two syntactically and semantically different
interpretations, but so have the lines in the databases file.
Of course, bugs should be corrected, but you haven't made me
understand why two environment variables are needed for that
purpose.

Lars Henriksen

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Re: 'send-pr --database' is broken in 4.0 beta

[Milan Zamazal]

>>>>> "LH" == Lars Henriksen <Lars.Henriksen@netman.dk> writes:

    LH> On Tue, May 14, 2002 at 03:24:14PM -0700, Mel Hatzis wrote:
    >> 1. invoking send-pr --database=xx doesn't work (a space is
    >> required between the '--database' and the 'xx'. Given the usage
    >> line, this is very misleading.

    LH> There is some inconsistency in the way the GNATS user tools
    LH> send-pr, query-pr and edit-pr accept their arguments. Or rather
    LH> in their usage messages: they all expect a space, but only
    LH> send-pr says it wants an equal sign. So presumably the send-pr
    LH> usage message should be corrected.

OK, I've fixed the usage message.

BTW, the C utilities (e.g. query-pr) accept both the equal sign and
space.

Regards,

Milan Zamazal

-- 
And why?

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