Re: [bug #38168] support --all

[Karl Berry]

    I found the usual -a functionality (when info
    displays a menu of the info pages it has located) pretty helpful

I agree.  I didn't mean to suggest removing that.  I was only talking
about the -a -o combination.

    Are there any more problems with [info -a -o] output?

Well, what surprised me is that given this result for -aw:
$ info -aw automake
/usr/local/gnu/share/info/automake.info
/usr/share/info/automake.info.gz

I would have expected the Top node of each file to be written.
But it isn't:
$ info -a --output /dev/null automake
info: Writing node (automake.info)Top...
info: Done.
info: Writing node (automake.info.gz)Invoking Automake...
info: Done.

I think I've now realized why this happens.  In my
/usr/local/gnu/share/info/dir, there is only one entry,
* Automake: (automake).         Making GNU standards-compliant Makefiles.

In /usr/share/info/dir, there are two:
* automake: (automake)Invoking Automake.        Generating Makefile.in.
* Automake: (automake).         Making GNU standards-compliant Makefiles.

They are in that order in the file, but if I switch them, the output
remains the same.  So I guess it is preferring the exact lowercase match
"automake".  ("info -a -o /tmp/x Automake" does output the Top node of
each.)  I guess that makes sense.


So that leaves my aside before: right now, there is nothing in the
output to indicate where the files are coming from.  I see you're
outputting a form feed between the files.  I suggest outputting a form
feed with the full file name before each file:

^L /usr/local/gnu/share/info/automake.info
..
^L /usr/share/info/automake.info.gz
..

(And there should be ^L *manpages* as well, except for the other bug.)

Furthermore, I'd suggest it would be useful to output
info: Writing file /usr/whatever/...
on stderr, so it's clear where the following
info: Writing node (autoconf.info)Top...
is coming from.

How does that sound?

Thanks,
k