Re: [Bacula-users] possible console interface improvement

[Dan L. <da...@la...>]

On Nov 13, 2008, at 1:55 AM, Tilman Schmidt wrote:

> On Thu, 13 Nov 2008 09:21:42 +0100, Arno Lehmann wrote:
>> There's one simple solution: Don't use those constructs... instead,
>> use 'update volume=volname FromPool=oldpool pool=newpool'
>>
>> (Untested, just had a look at the code... the manual does not mention
>> this.)
>
> Nor does the online help, which I guess is the main reason why that
> syntax isn't widely known or used. It is just not feasible for  
> everyone
> to consult the source code in order to find out what keywords a  
> command
> accepts. And the response of bconsole to an unknown keyword is also
> somewhat, erm, unusual.
>
> My suggestions for improvement (and no, I don't understand the Bacula
> source code nearly well enough to try and implement them myself)  
> would be:
>
> 1. Extend the "help" command to accept a command name argument and  
> list
> the keywords accepted by that command.
>
> 2. Enhance the command parser to accept abbreviations for keywords.
>
> 3. Modify the command parser to reject unknown keywords instead of
> silently ignoring them.
>
> 4. Improve the manual by merging the "Alphabetical List of Console
> Keywords" and "Alphabetical List of Console Commands" section into a
> single list describing each command accepted by bconsole completely,
> with all keywords it will accept.


Item 4 can be done without knowing how to read code.  Anyone?  Anyone?

-- 
Dan Langille
http://langille.org/