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SubjectLinux configuration scripts patches
Hi there.

***********************************************************
** Message resent due to some sort of screwup in pine !! **
** If you got the original, please accept my apologies **
***********************************************************

Regarding the various Linux configuration scripts, one problem that I've
noticed is that several of the help texts appear difficult to read simply
because they are displayed as one large lump of text rather than being
split into separate paragraphs.

On inspection, I noted that a blank line is used to separate help text
blocks in the configuration help file, so obviously one couldn't simply
add extra blank lines where required. However, the same problem occurred
in a different context in my experience as a licenced radio amateur, and
the solution adopted there was to include a line with a single space on it
where a blank line was required.

I tried this out with the help texts, and found that it didn't work since
the scripts were stripping out leading spaces before determining where the
end of the help text was. However, it gave me an idea for an alternative
method, which is to use a single character that would not normally occur
on its own on a line in a help file. The obvious candidate for this is the
full stop, and that is the character used.

The enclosed patch file makes the necessary trivial changes to the config
and menuconfig scripts to implement this facility, and has been made
against the script files supplied with kernel 2.0.33 but should be simple
to port to other kernels.

Please note that I have not created a patch to perform the same function
for the xconfig script for the simple reason that I can't find the said
script on my system. I have, however, copied this patch to both of the
"make xconfig" authors listed in the "make config" script file, so would
hope that one of them can port the relevant changes to their script.

Please note also that the use of a full stop for this purpose in the help
text produces a help text which is equally readable without the patches,
since the full stop gets displayed in the first column of each line, so
from that point of view, this patch is simply cosmetic.

AXEL: If this patch gets accepted, you may like to revise the help
texts accordingly to make them much easier to read...

Best wishes from Riley.

**************************************************************************

--- scripts/Configure.orig Fri Apr 10 12:46:10 1998
+++ scripts/Configure Fri Apr 10 12:48:51 1998
@@ -49,6 +49,10 @@
# 040697 Larry Augustin (lma@varesearch.com) - integer expr test
# fails with GNU expr 1.12. Re-write to work with new and old expr.

+# 100498 Riley Williams (rhw@bigfoot.com) - added ability to display
+# blank lines in help texts: Any line consisting only of a single dot
+# will be displayed blank.
+
#
# Make sure we're really running bash.
#
@@ -96,7 +100,7 @@
then
echo; echo " Sorry, no help available for this option yet.";echo
else
- (echo; echo "$text"; echo) | ${PAGER:-more}
+ (echo; echo "$text"; echo) | sed 's/^.$//' | ${PAGER:-more}
fi
else
echo;
--- scripts/Menuconfig.orig Fri Apr 10 12:38:49 1998
+++ scripts/Menuconfig Fri Apr 10 12:42:59 1998
@@ -22,6 +22,12 @@
# Please send comments / questions / bug fixes to roadcapw@titus.org
#
#----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+#
+# 10 Apr 1998 - Added ability to display blank lines in help text: Any line
+# which only contains a single dot will be displayed blank.
+# Author: Riley Williams <rhw@bigfoot.com>
+#
+#----------------------------------------------------------------------------

#
# Make sure we're really running bash.
@@ -229,7 +235,7 @@
echo "There is no help available for this kernel option."
return 1
else
- echo "$text"
+ echo "$text" | sed 's/^.$//'
fi
else
echo "There is no help available for this kernel option."


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