lynx-dev More on reading the lynx.cfg file

[Doug Kaufman]

Since we are getting close to a release, I wanted to try to state more
clearly why I disagree with Leonid about the code in LYReadCFG.c. The
following snippet is the code in question:

>#ifndef NO_CONFIG_INFO
>       fprintf(fp0, "<em>This is read from your lynx.cfg file,\n");
>#if defined(HAVE_CONFIG_H) || defined(VMS)
>       StrAllocCopy(temp, LYNX_CFG_FILE);
>#else
>       StrAllocCopy(temp, helpfilepath); /* no absolute path... */
>       StrAllocCat(temp, LYNXCFG_HELP);  /* for lynx.cfg on DOS/Win32 */
>#endif /* HAVE_CONFIG_H */
>       fprintf(fp0, "please \"read\" distribution's <a href=\"%s\">lynx.cfg",
>                    temp);
>       fprintf(fp0, "</a> for more comments.</em>\n\n");
>
>       fprintf(fp0, "    #<em>Your primary configuration %s</em>\n",
>                    lynx_cfg_file);
>#else
>       fprintf(fp0, "<em>This is read from your lynx.cfg file:</em>\n\n");
>#endif /* NO_CONFIG_INFO */
>
>       /*
>        *  Process the configuration file.
>        */
>       read_cfg(lynx_cfg_file, "main program", 1, fp0);

For all platforms the code extracts active elements from the active
lynx.cfg via the read_cfg function. The question is which lynx.cfg
file should be displayed for further information. Leonid proposes a
file at a location configurable only at compile time (LYNX_CFG_FILE
specified in userdefs.h for unix and VMS; lynx.cfg in the helpfile
directory for DOS and Win32). This assumes that the file has not
been altered to remove comments and that it actually exists at that
location. I proposed that the file displayed should be the actual
active lynx.cfg, which always exists. I further proposed that a
warning be put in INSTALLATION to not remove the comments, since they
are part of the help system. Perhaps what bothers me the most is the
lack of configurablilty after compilation.

For DOS and Win32 users, the current code seems inappropriate, since
these are generally single-user systems. The only one who would remove
the comments would be that user (who should have the distribution
available if necessary, and who should know where the configuration
file was placed). Unless there are going to be two lynx.cfg files, the
help directory seems an unlikely place to have lynx.cfg. Unless the code
is changed, I suspect that most DOS and Win32 users will get "file not
found" rather than a lynx.cfg to read.

                              Doug


__
Doug Kaufman
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