Re: [PATCH 8/9] gitweb: Convert output to using indirect file handle

From: Jakub Narebski <jnareb@gmail.com>
Date: Jan 25, 2010, 21:48 UTC
Message-ID: <201001252248.14874.jnareb@gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <4B5E03AD.1020404@eaglescrag.net>

On Mon, 25 Jan 2010, J.H. wrote:

Show 10 quoted lines

> > So there is a bit of rule of preservation of difficulty at work.  Either
> > we have large patch adding explicit filehandle to all print statements
> > 'print <sth> -> print $out <sth>' but simple code, or have smaller patch
> > but complicated *STDOUT manipulation, or have small patch but rely on 
> > non-core CPAN modules present.
> 
> I think depending in non-core CPAN modules is a really bad idea, and
> will cause some concern and consternation with mainline distributions,
> besides making it more complicated for users to get this up and running
> quickly and easily.

Note: the modules in question are Capture::Tiny or PerlIO::Util.
Capture::Tiny is available as perl-Capture-Tiny RPM module for Fedora Core
up from FC11 and in DAG repository, at least.

First, installing non-core CPAN modules locally for user is very simple thanks to local::lib. After setup it is simply 'cpan -i PerlIO::Util', and PerlIO::Util gets installed locally, by default inside ~/perl5.

Second, we can go the route that Git.pm did, namely include sources for extra modules (private-Error.pm in case of Git.pm) and install it if needed. With proper build system (Module::Install, Module::Build) it is even simpler with inc or inc::latest. And there is always PAR[1] if you want to have everything in one file.

[1]: http://par.perl.org

>                     While I agree there are other ways of handling this 
> I think just adding the filehandle to the print statements provides the
> easiest cross section of usability and functionality for everything
> involved.

Well, manipulating *STDOUT shouldn't be, I think, much harder, although I guess it would need more care (so that e.g. "Generating..." page gets written to real STDOUT).

-- 
Jakub Narebski
Poland