Re: Zutils vs single compressor utilities

[Antonio Diaz Diaz]

Paul Eggert wrote:
> > c) Adding to configure the option "--enable-scripts=no" to disable
> > building and installation of the "zscripts" (zcat, zcmp, zdiff,
> > zgrep), without any "gzscripts" (gzcat, gzcmp, gzdiff, gzgrep)
> > replacing them.
>
> Something like that, yes, but it's not clear that's exactly
> right, from the gzip point of view.  There are many scripts:
> why pick just those four?

Because those four programs are provided by zutils. Zutils also include 
zegrep and zfgrep (sorry, I forgot to mention them before), but I hope 
to get rid of them someday as the corresponding egrep and fgrep programs 
are deprecated[1].
[1] http://www.gnu.org/software/grep/manual/grep.html#grep-Programs

"In addition, two variant programs egrep and fgrep are available. egrep 
is the same as 'grep -E'. fgrep is the same as 'grep -F'. Direct 
invocation as either egrep or fgrep is deprecated, but is provided to 
allow historical applications that rely on them to run unmodified."


> Here's the complete list:
>
> gunzip  zcat  zdiff  zfgrep  zgrep  zmore
> gzexe    uncompress  zcmp  zegrep  zforce  zless  znew

Zcat, zcmp, zdiff, zgrep, zegrep and zfgrep are the only programs from 
gzip conflicting with those of zutils. I think the other gzip scripts 
can continue to be distributed with gzip just as they are now. (Perhaps 
zless and zmore could be dropped given that there already exist 
multi-format lesspipe[2][3] scripts.
[2] http://www-zeuthen.desy.de/~friebel/unix/lesspipe.html
[3] http://packages.debian.org/sid/less


> Perhaps the operand of --enable-scripts should list just
> the scripts wanted (or conversely, the operand of --disable-scripts
> should list just those scripts not wanted).  Or it could give
> a shell pattern for the script names.  (I'm just thinking out
> loud here.  I haven't thought through how this would interact
> with --program-transform-name.)

This sounds rather complicated. More so if a complementary 
--enable-programs list have to be passed to zutils. I would prefer a 
single option disabling the six scripts in gzip. I doubt many users will 
need to be so selective.


> More generally, why does the installer care which programs
> are scripts and which are not?  So perhaps the option should
> be --enable-programs instead of --enable-scripts.

I'll be happy with any name you choose for the option. :-)