Date: Thu, 24 Sep 2009 06:08:00 +1000 From: Peter Jeremy <peterjeremy@acm.org> To: cy@FreeBSD.org, wenheping@gmail.com Cc: ports@FreeBSD.org Subject: Relevance of pkg-descr for misc/tmux, sysutils/screen Message-ID: <20090923200800.GC26192@server.vk2pj.dyndns.org>
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--Izn7cH1Com+I3R9J Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable I am often in the position where I want a tool to do something but don't know whether a suitable tool exists. My first port of call is generally to grep the ports INDEX and pkg-descr files for likely keywords. In most cases, this seems to work, however I've just found an example where, IMHO, the most important feature in the port isn't mentioned at all. Since I have never used either tmux or screen, the currently running bikeshed in -arch and -current prompted me to have a look at both tools. Reading the pkg-descr for screen, I get four pieces of information: 1) "full-screen window manager that multiplexes a physical terminal between several processes" - unless I am using a headless server, why would I bother when FreeBSD supports multiple VTYs or xterms. 2) "VT100 superset" - same as VTY and xterm 3) "scrollback history buffer for each virtual terminal" - same as VTY/xterm 4) "a copy-and-paste mechanism" - same as VTY and xterm. The pkg-descr for tmux basically says "BSD licensed version of screen". At this point, I was left wondering why the longest bikeshed I've seen for a _very_ long time was arguing over the inclusion of a tool that had no apparent usefulness in FreeBSD unless you are running a headless server. Even allowing for the inverse relationship between the length of a bikeshed and its importance, as well as the number of people who run headless servers (I do myself) there seemed to be something missing... Following a discussion on IRC, I discovered that screen (and tmux) allows you to detach from a process and reattach to it later - very useful when you want remote or intermittent access to a long-running process - I use misc/dtach to do this with my IRC client. Unlike the documented features, this _is_ something that doesn't exist in FreeBSD by default. It's a pity that you'd never know about it by reading the pkg-descr file. --=20 Peter Jeremy --Izn7cH1Com+I3R9J Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.13 (FreeBSD) iEYEARECAAYFAkq6gCAACgkQ/opHv/APuIfyGgCgpxlmkaEPip6iN3ObLo3JSp60 XyQAoKH8CEMtHq/tQWwvl4nPY00xYthr =kPSt -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --Izn7cH1Com+I3R9J--
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