Re: [yocto] Recipe Grep'ing

["Bruce Ashfield" <bruce.ashfield@gmail.com>]

On Wed, May 5, 2021 at 8:42 PM Chuck Wolber <chuckwolber@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I was pondering putting some work in to a fairly large patch set aimed at making recipes easier to grep through, and wanted to get some feedback before I put time and effort into it.
>
> I have often found that the following pattern cleanly describes the "what" and the "why" when grep'ing through recipes to search for things:
>
> FOO += "item1"
> FOO += "item2"
>
> Whereas this pattern gives us the "what", but not the "why":
>
> FOO = "item1 \
>              item2 \
>             "
>
> After discussing this with Richard Purdie on IRC, I also understand that the latter pattern benefits some forms of build output. In addition, for SRC_URI, the "why" is normally fairly obvious from context clues.

The other issue with large formatting patches, is that they make a
history "wall".  So when we are debugging and trying to figure why a
change was made, you always have to jump over the wall (or dig under
it) to get the real information.

As such, I'm not a fan of changes like this, unless they are coupled
to some sort of functional change. So I'd be hesitant to take them
into recipes that I end up holding the bag when things break.

Cheers,

Bruce

>
> So, is there any interest in accepting a patch set of that nature for Yocto and OE repositories? If so, what variables and situations should be considered "off limits" to a change like that?
>
> ..Ch:W..
>
>
> --
> "Perfection must be reached by degrees; she requires the slow hand of time." - Voltaire
>
> 
>


-- 
- Thou shalt not follow the NULL pointer, for chaos and madness await
thee at its end
- "Use the force Harry" - Gandalf, Star Trek II