[dmidecode] Command line interface

[Jean Delvare]

Hi all,

In the last few weeks, I added a command line interface to dmidecode.
You now have the possibility to only display certain types of DMI
entries (as Erwan Velu proposed several months ago). You can have
dmidecode dump the entries instead of decoding them. You can have
dmidecode be less verbose. And finally you can have dmidecode extract
individual strings from the DMI table, such as the BIOS version or the
processor manufacturer.

>From the manual page:

       -q, --quiet
              Be less verbose. Unknown, inactive and OEM-specific
              entries are not  displayed.  Meta-data  and  handle
              references are hidden.

       -s, --string KEYWORD
              Only display the value of the DMI string identified
              by KEYWORD.  KEYWORD must be  a  keyword  from  the
              following  list:  bios-vendor,  bios-version, bios-
              release-date, system-manufacturer,  system-product-
              name,  system-version,  system-serial-number, base­
              board-manufacturer,  baseboard-product-name,  base­
              board-version,  baseboard-serial-number, baseboard-
              asset-tag,  chassis-manufacturer,  chassis-version,
              chassis-serial-number,  chassis-asset-tag,  proces­
              sor-manufacturer, processor-version.  Each  keyword
              corresponds  to a given DMI type and a given offset
              within this entry type.  Not  all  strings  may  be
              meaningful  or  even  defined  on all systems. Some
              keywords may return more than one  result  on  some
              systems (e.g.  processor-version on a multi-proces­
              sor system).  If KEYWORD is  not  provided  or  not
              valid,  a list of all valid keywords is printed and
              dmidecode exits with an error.  This option  cannot
              be used more than once, and implies --quiet.  Mutu­
              ally exclusive with --type and --dump.

       -t, --type TYPE
              Only display the entries of type TYPE. TYPE can  be
              either a DMI type number, or a comma-separated list
              of type numbers, or a keyword  from  the  following
              list:  bios, system, baseboard, chassis, processor,
              memory, cache, connector, slot. Refer  to  the  DMI
              TYPES section below for details.  If this option is
              used more than once, the set of  displayed  entries
              will  be the union of all the given types.  If TYPE
              is not provided or not valid, a list of  all  valid
              keywords  is  printed  and  dmidecode exits with an
              error.  Mutually exclusive with --string.

       -u, --dump
              Do not decode the entries, dump their  contents  as
              hexadecimal  instead.   Note  that  this is still a
              text output, no binary data  will  be  thrown  upon
              you.  The  strings  attached to each entry are dis­
              played as both hexadecimal and ASCII.  This  option
              is mainly useful for debugging.  Mutually exclusive
              with --string.


I would welcome feedback on both the new user interface and its
implementation.

I will look into making it possible to extract more than just DMI
strings, but also any other field. For example, I know that some people
would be interested in the chassis type, the system UUID or the state of
memory slots. These are encoded in binary instead of strings. I don't
know yet how feasable it is though, and I'll do it only if it is
relatively straightforward.

Thanks,
-- 
Jean Delvare