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Date:      Sun, 1 Mar 2015 19:11:45 +0000
From:      David Chisnall <theraven@FreeBSD.org>
To:        Harrison Grundy <harrison.grundy@astrodoggroup.com>
Cc:        freebsd-current@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Massive libxo-zation that breaks everything
Message-ID:  <F1683E9A-6004-4749-BD6E-A5B2472F6C77@FreeBSD.org>
In-Reply-To: <54F35F29.4000603@astrodoggroup.com>
References:  <54F31510.7050607@hot.ee> <54F34B6E.2040809@astrodoggroup.com> <CAG=rPVfcB1Fy_8mHq-t5Ay07yrzuSGthQ0ZcGzvp0XG9gSSzkg@mail.gmail.com> <54F35F29.4000603@astrodoggroup.com>

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On 1 Mar 2015, at 18:49, Harrison Grundy =
<harrison.grundy@astrodoggroup.com> wrote:
>=20
> That does seem useful, but I'm not sure I see the reasoning behind
> putting into base, over a port or package, since processing XML in =
base
> is a pain, and it can't serve up JSON or HTML without additional
> utilities anyway.

How would it be in a port?  It involves modifying core utilities (some =
of which, like ifconfig, rely on kernel APIs that change between =
releases) to emit structured output.  Maintaining two copies of each =
utility, one in the base system with plain-text output only and another =
in ports with XML/JSON output would be very painful.

The goal of having machine-readable output in the base system is that =
people building systems atop FreeBSD will be able to expect a stable, =
machine-parsable, extensible, output from these tools.  If you're =
building a web admin GUI or automated administration tool for FreeBSD =
11, or improving integration in your favourite DE, then you should be =
able to rely on the output from base system tools, without having to =
depend on anything external.

My only concern with libxo at present is that many of the modified tools =
are not emitting self-describing output (e.g. not specifying units for =
things), but that's something that we have a year to shake out before =
11.

David




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