mirror of
https://github.com/smxi/inxi.git
synced 2024-11-16 08:11:39 +00:00
armbsdcli-utilitieslinuxperlperl5remote-admin-toolsupport-toolssysadmin-toolsysinfosystem-administration
029a331a06
inxi or a Konversation bug, which made tracking it down very difficult. Special thanks to argonel of Konversation for helping solve this problem, or at least, for directing my attention towards the likely cause area, and away from wrong ideas. The bug was that inxi simply did not run in Konversation, it would exit with error when run with /cmd or /inxi via symbolic links. This may not seem like a huge deal to many of you, but the actual history of inxi was directly linked to user support in mainly Konversation, so this feature not working I have alwyas found extremely annoying, but I could never figure out why it wasn't workiing, and didn't really know where to start until Argonel helped narrow it down to a specific Konversation function in inxi. At which point tracking down the real bug was fairly easy. Since testing in IRC is always a key test point for inxi features and releases, not working in my main GUI IRC client forced me to use CLI clients like irssi, via /exec -o inxi. There was a secondary cause of failure, which was missing a key qdbus package, which made figuring this one out a two step process. So inxi is once again working in all areas, with no known significant failure areas beyond known issues that have no current solution, or which I don't feel like doing. But possibly more important, a goal I have had for a while now of doing long needed code refactors, bug fixes, without huge new code blocks or features adding new future fixes and bugs, has been slowly happening. This was quite important, because inxi's codebase and logic is so complex and large now that at some point, it required rest and cleanup and corrections, without continuously adding new code and logic, which would then trigger new fixes and bugs. In other words, the code is taking a long needed, and well deserved, breather, to recover after huge increases in the overall LOC and feature sets. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- KNOWN ISSUES: 1. No known way to detect that the system might be Wayland for the Graphics:.. API: fixes, unless Xwayland is installed if the wayland protocol detections failed, which they often do in console. Not practical to look for all compositor variants on system to determine if it could be Wayland if not X or Xvesa, so that one will just be what it is, which is fine, definitely better than it was before. Note this is only an issue if in Console, no Display. Note that if inxi is run as root, Wayland data also usually fails, even in Display. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BUGS: 1. Another corner case monitor position issue, applied fallback primary monitor rule when a primary monitor had already been located. This is corrected via a graphics global $b_primary which once set will disable this fallback feature. Objectively, the fallback feature should just be removed. The test is if that monitor is not primary, and if position is 0x0, then assume primary, without verifying no primary had been located yet. 2. A super old bug, in current konversation, was failing to trip the konvi detections, which then resulted in not stripping off the first two args in @ARGV, which then resulted in bad args being passed to inxi on konvi start, which then resulted in silent failing. Many thanks to argonel of #konversation for the patience to help me figure out what was going on with this bug. He's been a Konversation developer probably longer than I've been doing inxi. Cause was very tricky and subtle, the ps aux path for konvi had changed slightly, not the path, but the pattern, it used to be: konversation -session [sessin id] but it's changed to: konversation -qwindowtitle Konversation or just plain: konversation as line ending. This led to failure to find konvi running, which then made the konvi ids fail. Also, this would not work if the qdbus-qt5 package was not installed, or other distros might have that packaged differently. Because of these dual causes, I was simply unable to figure out what was going on for many years. I suspect this stopped working with KDE 5/QT 5, but I'm not sure. 3. Used wrong key names for some ZFS tests and fallbacks, those could have led to failures though very difficult to test and verify this. Also see fix 5, which of course also looks like a bug, acts like one, but was actually due to a new use of /dev/disk/by-partuuid for ZFS components in Ubuntu which inxi had not seen before. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FIXES: 1. Alternate ps IDs for appimage detection (try appimagelauncher), alternate paths for possible appimage storage locations (also try ~/.appimage/*). File names might be *.appimage or *.AppImage, probably other variants too. 2. Going along with Change 1, made tests more granular for missing graphics API type data. Also updated messages to be more correct and clear, in and out of display. This corrects an issue I'd seen but never resolved, which was on headless systems showing this message: Message: GL data unavailable in console. Try -G --display Now the tests are far more granular, and only show that if glxinfo is installed, and also shows specific messages if glxinfo not installed, but X/Xorg present, or, for Wayland, if Xwayland present. These all get their own specific messages now, and generally will also show which API is being used, or API: N/A if nothing is detected, as in the case of a headless system with no X, Wayland, etc. 3. Github issue #275 on of all things Microsoft WSL environment, has a small glitch with undefined display hz, but otherwise inxi seems to work in that environment, albeit missing many data types! 4. Made tests for konversation more robust, including test for $ENV{'PYTHONPATH'} containing konversation in path, which I believe will work for all new Konversations (KDE 5 and newer), and be much faster. The previous tests are now more robust and less prone to failure, and only activate when PYTHONPATH is not present with konversation string present as well. 5. Fix for ZFS using /dev/disk/by-partuuid for partition id in zfs, which can lead to wrong usable disk total size report, along with failure to show components. Thanks delanym, issue #276 for reporting this problem, which also exposed some harder to trigger bugs in ZFS (Bug 3). 6. Exposed by issue #276, case where line was wrapping value when value was too short visually to value: used: 34.4 GiB (4.5%) due to the 3 or more words trigger to enable wrapping of value, but noticed that if length of line was exactly max-width, not > or <, it might vanish. 7. Case where no X or GPU drivers found, but dri driver detected, was not showing, now does. 8. OpenRC is the init system in some cases, that is: readlink /sbin/init > /sbin/openrc-init, where /proc/1/comm == init. Was showing only as OpenRC rc type, which wasn't actually correct. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ENHANCEMENTS: 1. New nvidia gpu product ids for Turing, Ampere, Lovelace, Hopper. New Intel GPU ids. 2. Added Zinc to systembase/distro, needs slightly special handling to get both names right. Also added Tuxedo, which could use existing methods. 3. Added dpkg tool nala, which is sort of a CLI front end for apt, zinc uses it, but it's also in Debian main package pool. Also deb-get, which is another zinc thing for package management. 4. Full support for dinit: version, dinitctl w/status in ServiceData 4. Added initial support for init systems: 31init (31 line C program, no --version), Hummingbird (unknown if -v/--version). 5. A few new CPU arch ids (new Intels). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHANGES: 1. Going somewhat along with the change in Audio to call ALSA a Sound API instead of a sound server, changed key name OpenGL: to API: OpenGL in Graphics. Also for EGL wayland, calling that the api too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenGL This conforms more closely to how these things are defined. Note that once again, a value had been used as a key name, which almost always indicates a failure to understand something about the core tech. 2. Changed wrapping of values from 3 words or more to 3 or more words AND length > 24 characters. Saw example of: .... used: 28.45 GiB (4.5%) which isn't desirable. 3. Changed minimum wrap to 60 columns, the new wrapper features are working so well that if users want output that short, it will usually work fine, except of course for very long word strings like a kernel name or parameter. Note that this does not truncate long 'words' that might be wrapped, or going along with Change 2, long 'sentences' of 2 words, those will always appear on the same line regardless. For 'sentences' of 3 or more words, however, it goes word by word, so it could well wrap after the first word, and so on. Obviously, a 24 or fewer character value will never be wrapped, which was the intended correction of change 2. 4. Going with Fix 8, OpenRc is an init system when it owns /proc/1/comm, had not realized that /proc/1/comm == init can map to dinit, openrc as init. Now will only show OpenRc as rc: type if not init as well. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DOCUMENTATION: 1. Updates in man for Change 1. 2. Added to docs/inxi-graphics.txt good quote re EGL/GBM, as well as VBE/GOP for vesa. Trying to find docs where they actually say clearly it's an API is remarkably difficult. 3. Man page, added note about Konversation requiring qdbus-qt5 (Debian+), qt5-qttool (RHEL+/SUSE+), qt-tools (Arch+) for inxi to work inside it. Also updated smxi.org/docs/inxi-usage.txt to note requirements for Konversation use and setup. 4. Man, help, changed min width for -y/--width from 80 to 60. 5. docs/inxi-values.txt updated for --cygwin, --wsl fake OS type switches. Not technically the OS, more the environment, but close enough. 6. docs/inxi-init.txt updated for new init types. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CODE: 1. Refactored tools/gpu_ids.pl to correct and enhance some features. 2. Renamed functions and sections to better reflect that the display interface is an API, this makes stuff less odd internally, and makes the function/variable names correspond better to what the stuff really is. 3. Commented out kde konversation data source config collector, that logic looks like it never worked, and couldn't work, since it never actually located inxi.conf files, just paths to the data directories. 4. Expanded release.pl to handle acxi docs as well, makes it all consistent and a lot easier to do long term. 5. Fake --wsl WSL switch, not really used, but in case. 6. Changed $b_cygwin to $windows{'cygwin'} and added $windows{'wsl'}. 7. Added -WSL to debugger string generator once WSL type is detected. 8. Refactored init, runlevel functions get_init_data() (now InitData::get()), get_runlevel_data() (now InitData::get_runlevel()), get_runlevel_default() (now InitData::get_runlevel_default()) into one package/class: InitData. This should have been done a long time ago, to follow the general rule "if > 1 functions for a tool refactor it into a class/package" for when to create a package/class internally. 9. Completed gpu_ids.pl, now outputs the full hash set per item, so entire blocks can be copied/pasted over. Something of a pain to get comments included, which aren't strictly necessary in pinxi itself, but they do help read the hashes for gpu data. |
||
---|---|---|
inxi | ||
inxi.1 | ||
inxi.changelog | ||
LICENSE.txt | ||
README.txt |
README for inxi - a command line system information tool The new faster, more powerful Perl inxi is here! File all issue reports with the master branch. All support for versions prior to 3.0 is now ended, sorry. Make sure to update to the current inxi from the master branch before filing any issue reports. The code in pre 2.9 versions literally no longer exists in inxi 3. Bugs from earlier versions cannot usually be solved in the new version since the pre 2.9 and the 2.9 and later versions are completely different internally. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DONATE -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help support the project with a one time or a sustaining donation. Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=77DQVM6A4L5E2 Open Collective: https://opencollective.com/inxi ================================================================================ DEVELOPMENT AND ISSUES -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Make inxi better! Expand supported hardware and OS data, fix broken items! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HELP PROJECT DEVELOPMENT! SUBMIT A DEBUGGER DATASET -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is easy to do, and only takes a few seconds. These datasets really help the project add and debug features. You will generally also be asked to provide this data for non trivial issue reports. Note that the following options are present: 1. Generate local gz'ed debugger dataset. Leaves gz on your system: inxi version >= 3: inxi --debug 20 2. Generate, upload gz'ed debugger dataset. Leaves gz on your system: inxi version >= 3: inxi --debug 21 3. Generate, upload, delete gz'ed debugger dataset: inxi version >= 3: inxi --debug 22 You can run these as regular user, or root/sudo, which will gather a bit more data, like from dmidecode, and other tools that need superuser permissions to run. ARM (plus MIPS, SPARC, PowerPC) and BSD datasets are particularly appreciated because we simply do not have enough of those. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FILE AN ISSUE IF YOU FIND SOMETHING MISSING, BROKEN, OR FOR AN ENHANCEMENT -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- inxi strives to support the widest range of operating systems and hardware, from the most simple consumer desktops, to the most advanced professional hardware and servers. The issues you post help maintain or expand that support, and are always appreciated since user data and feedback is what keeps inxi working and supporting the latest (or not so latest) hardware and operating systems. See INXI VERSION/SUPPORT/ISSUES/BUGS INFORMATION for more about issues/support. See BSD/UNIX below for qualifications re BSDs, and OSX in particular. ================================================================================ SOURCE VERSION CONTROL -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- https://github.com/smxi/inxi MAIN BRANCH: master DEVELOPMENT BRANCHES: inxi-perl, one, two inxi-perl is the dev branch, the others are rarely if ever used. inxi itself has the built in feature to be able to update itself from anywhere, including these branches, which is very useful for development and debugging on various user systems. PULL REQUESTS: Please talk to me before starting to work on patches of any reasonable complexity. inxi is hard to work on, and you have to understand how it works before submitting patches, unless it's a trivial bug fix. Please: NEVER even think about looking at or using previous inxi commits, previous to the current master version, as a base for a patch. If you do, your patch / pull request will probably be rejected. Developers, get your version from the inxi-perl branch, pinxi, otherwise you may not be current to actual development versions. inxi-perl pinxi is always equal to or ahead of master branch inxi. Man page updates, doc page updates, etc, of course, are easy and will probably be accepted, as long as they are properly formatted and logically coherent. When under active development, inxi releases early, and releases often. PACKAGERS: inxi has one and only one 'release', and that is the current commit/version in the master branch (plus pinxi inxi-perl branch, of course, but those should never be packaged). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MASTER BRANCH -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is the only supported branch, and the current latest commit/version is the only supported 'release'. There are no 'releases' of inxi beyond the current commit/version in master. All past versions are not supported. git clone https://github.com/smxi/inxi --branch master --single-branch OR direct fast and easy install: wget -O inxi https://github.com/smxi/inxi/raw/master/inxi OR easy to remember shortcut (which redirects to github): wget -O inxi https://smxi.org/inxi wget -O inxi smxi.org/inxi NOTE: Just because github calls tagged commits 'Releases' does not mean they are releases! I can't change the words on the tag page. They are tagged commits, period. A tag is a pointer to a commit, and has no further meaning. If your distribution has blocked -U self updater and you want a newer version: Open /etc/inxi.conf and change false to true: B_ALLOW_UPDATE=true -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DEVELOPMENT BRANCH -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- All active development is now done on the inxi-perl branch (pinxi): git clone https://github.com/smxi/inxi --branch inxi-perl --single-branch OR direct fast and easy install: wget -O pinxi https://github.com/smxi/inxi/raw/inxi-perl/pinxi OR easy to remember shortcut (which redirects to github): wget -O pinxi https://smxi.org/pinxi wget -O pinxi smxi.org/pinxi Once new features have been debugged, tested, and are reasonably stable, pinxi is copied to inxi in the master branch. It's a good idea to check with pinxi if you want to make sure your issue has not been corrected, since pinxi is always equal to or ahead of inxi. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- LEGACY INXI (in inxi-legacy repo) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you'd like to look at the Gawk/Bash version of inxi, you can find it in the inxi-legacy repo, as binxi in the /inxi-legacy directory: Direct fast and easy install: wget -O binxi https://github.com/smxi/inxi-legacy/raw/master/inxi-legacy/binxi OR easy to remember shortcut (which redirects to github): wget -O binxi https://smxi.org/binxi This version will not be maintained, and it's unlikely that any time will be spent on it in the future, but it is there in case it's of use or interest to anyone. This was kept for a long time as the inxi-legacy branch of inxi, but was moved to the inxi-legacy repo 2021-09-24. ================================================================================ SUPPORT INFO -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Do not ask for basic help that reading the inxi -h / --help menus, or man page would show you, and do not ask for features to be added that inxi already has. Also do not ask for support if your distro won't update its inxi version, some are bad about that. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DOCUMENTATION -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- https://smxi.org/docs/inxi.htm (smxi.org/docs/ is easier to remember, and is one click away from inxi.htm). The one page wiki on github is only a pointer to the real resources. https://github.com/smxi/inxi/tree/inxi-perl/docs Contains specific Perl inxi documentation, of interest mostly to developers. Includes internal inxi tools, values, configuration items. Also has useful information about Perl version support, including the list of Core modules that _should_ be included in a distribution's core modules, but which are unfortunately sometimes removed. INXI CONFIGURATION: https://smxi.org/docs/inxi-configuration.htm HTML MAN PAGE: https://smxi.org/docs/inxi-man.htm INXI OPTIONS PAGE: https://smxi.org/docs/inxi-options.htm NOTE: Check the inxi version number on each doc page to see which version will support the options listed. The man and options page also link to a legacy version, pre 2.9. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- IRC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You can go to: irc.oftc.net or irc.libera.chat channel #smxi but be prepared to wait around for a while to get a response. Generally it's better to use github issues. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ISSUES -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- https://github.com/smxi/inxi/issues No issues accepted for non current inxi versions. See below for more on that. Unfortunately as of 2.9, no support or issues can be accepted for older inxi's because inxi 2.9 (Perl) and newer is a full rewrite, and legacy inxi is not being supported since our time here on earth is finite (plus of course, one reason for the rewrite was to never have to work with Gawk->Bash again!). Sys Admin type inxi users always get the first level of support. ie, convince us you run real systems and networks, and your issue shoots to the top of the line. As do any real bugs. Failure to supply requested debugger data will lead To a distinct lack of interest on our part to help you with a bug. ie, saying, oh, it doesn't work, doesn't cut it, unless it's obvious why. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SUPPORT FORUMS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- https://techpatterns.com/forums/forum-33.html This is the best place to place support issues that may be complicated. If you are developer, use: DEVELOPER FORUMS: https://techpatterns.com/forums/forum-32.html ================================================================================ ABOUT INXI -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- inxi is a command line system information tool. It was forked from the ancient and mindbendingly perverse yet ingenius infobash, by locsmif. That was a buggy, impossible to update or maintain piece of software, so the fork fixed those core issues, and made it flexible enough to expand the utility of the original ideas. Locmsif has given his thumbs up to inxi, so don't be fooled by legacy infobash stuff you may see out there. inxi is lower case, except when I create a text header here in a file like this, but it's always lower case. Sometimes to follow convention I will use upper case inxi to start a sentence, but i find it a bad idea since invariably, someone will repeat that and type it in as the command name, then someone will copy that, and complain that the command: Inxi doesn't exist... The primary purpose of inxi is for support, and sys admin use. inxi is used widely for forum and IRC support, which is I believe it's most common function. If you are piping output to paste or post (or writing to file), inxi now automatically turns off color codes, so the inxi 2.3.xx and older suggestion to use -c 0 to turn off colors is no longer required. inxi strives to be as accurate as possible, but some things, like memory/ram data, depend on radically unreliable system self reporting based on OEM filling out data correctly, which doesn't often happen, so in those cases, you want to confirm things like ram capacity with a reputable hardware source, like crucial.com, which has the best ram hardware tool I know of. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- COMMITMENT TO LONG TERM STABILITY -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The core mission of inxi is to always work on all systems all the time. Well, all systems with the core tools inxi requires to operate installed. What this means is this: you can have a 10 year old box, or probably 15, not sure, and you can install today's inxi on it, and it will run. It won't run fast, but it will run. I test inxi on a 200 MHz laptop from about 1998 to keep it honest. That's also what was used to optimize the code at some points, since differences appear as seconds, not 10ths or 100ths of seconds on old systems like that. inxi is being written, and tested, on Perl as old as 5.08, and will work on any system that runs Perl 5.08 or later. Pre 2.9.0 Gawk/Bash inxi will also run on any system no matter how old, within reason, so there should be no difference. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FEATURES AND FUNCTIONALITY -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- inxi's functionality continues to grow over time, but it's also important to understand that each core new feature usually requires about 30 days work to get it stable. So new features are not trivial things, nor is it acceptable to submit a patch that works only on your personal system. One inxi feature (-s, sensors data), took about 2 hours to get working in the alpha test on the local dev system, but then to handle the massive chaos that is actual user sensors output and system variations, it took several rewrites and about 30 days to get somewhat reliable for about 98% or so of inxi users. So if your patch is rejected, it's likely because you have not thought it through adequately, have not done adequate testing cross system and platform, etc. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SUPPORTED VERSIONS / DISTRO VERSIONS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Important: the only version of inxi that is supported is the latest current master branch version/commit. No issue reports or bug reports will be accepted for anything other than current master branch. No merges, attempts to patch old code from old versions, will be considered or accepted. If you are not updated to the latest inxi, do not file a bug report since it's probably been fixed ages ago. If your distro isn't packaging a current inxi, then file a bug report with your packager, not here. inxi is 'rolling release' software, just like Debian Sid, Gentoo, or Arch Linux are rolling release GNU/Linux distributions, with no 'release points'. Distributions should never feel any advantage comes from using old inxi versions because inxi has as a core promise to you, the end user, that it will never require new tools to run. New tools may be required for a new feature, but that will always be handled internally by inxi, and will not cause any operational failures. This is a promise, and I will never as long as I run this project violate that core inxi requirement. Old inxi is NOT more stable than current inxi, it's just old, and lacking in bug fixes and features. For pre 2.9 versions, it's also significantly slower, and with fewer features. Your distro not updating inxi ever, then failing to show something that is fixed in current inxi is not a bug, and please do not post it here. File the issue with your distro, not here. Updating inxi in a package pool will NEVER make anything break or fail, period. It has no version based dependencies, just software, like Perl 5.xx, lspci, etc. There is never a valid reason to not update inxi in a package pool of any distro in the world (with one single known exception, the Slackware based Puppy Linux release, which ships without the full Perl language. The Debian based one works fine). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SEMANTIC VERSION NUMBERING -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- inxi uses 'semantic' version numbering, where the version numbers actually mean something. The version number follows these guidelines: Using example 3.2.28-6 The first digit(s), "3", is a major version, and almost never changes. Only a huge milestone, or if inxi reaches 3.9.xx, when it will simply move up to 4.0.0 just to keep it clean, would cause a change. The second digit(s), "2", means a new real feature has been added. Not a tweaked existing feature, an actual new feature, which usually also has a new argument option letter attached. The second number goes from 0 to 9, and then rolls over the first after 9. The third, "28", is for everything not covered by 1 and 2, can cover bug fixes, tweaks to existing features to add support for something, full on refactors of existing features, pretty much anything where you want the end user to know that they are not up to date. The third goes from 0 to 99, then rolls over the second. The fourth, "6", is extra information about certain types of inxi updates. I don't usually use this last one in master branch, but you will see it in branches one,two, inxi-perl, inxi-legacy since that is used to confirm remote test system patch version updates. The fourth number, when used, will be alpha-numeric, a common version would be, in say, branch one: 2.2.28-b1-02, in other words: branch 1 patch version 2. In the past, now and then the 4th, or 'patch', number, was used in trunk/master branches of inxi, but I've pretty much stopped doing that because it's confusing. inxi does not use the fiction of date based versioning because that imparts no useful information to the end user, when you look at say, 2.2.28, and you last had 2.2.11, you can know with some certainty that inxi has no major new features, just refactors or expansion of existing logic, enhancements, fine tunings, and bug fixes. And if you see one with 2.3.2, you will know that there is a new feature, almost, but not always, linked to one or more new line output items. Sometimes a the changes in the third number can be quite significant, sometimes it's a one line code or bug fix. A move to a new full version number, like the rewrite of inxi to Perl, would reflect in first version say, 2.9.01, then after a period of testing, where most little glitches are fixed, a move to 3.0.0. These almost never happen. I do not expect for example version 4.0 to ever happen after 3.0 (early 2018), unless so many new features are added that it actually hits 3.9, then it would roll over to 4. ================================================================================ BSD / UNIX -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BSD support is not as complete as GNU/Linux support due to the fact some of the data simply is not available, or is structured in a way that makes it unique to each BSD, or is difficult to process. This fragmentation makes supporting BSDs far more difficult than it should be in the 21st century. The BSD support in inxi is a slowly evolving process. Evolving in the strict technical sense of evolutionary fitness, following fitness for purpose, that is (like OpenBSD's focus on security and high quality code, for instance), not as in progressing forwards. Features are being added as new data sources and types are discovered, and others are being dropped, as prior data sources degenerate or mutate to a point where trying to deal with them stops being interesting. Once it starts growing evident that a particular branch has hit a dead end and no longer warrants the time required to follow it to its extinction, support will be reduced to basically maintenance mode. In other words, inxi follows this evolutionary process, and does not try to revive dead or dying branches, since that's a waste of time. Note that due to time/practicality constraints, in general, only the original BSD branches will be supported: OpenBSD+derived; FreeBSD+derived; NetBSD+derived (in that order of priority, with a steep curve down from first to last). With the caveat that since it's my time being volunteered here, if the BSD in question has basically no users, or has bad tools, or no usable tools, or inconsistent or unreliable tools, or bad / weak data, or, worst, no actual clear reason to exist, I'm not willing to spend time on it as a general rule. Other UNIX variants will generally only get the work required to make internal BSD flags get set and to remove visible output errors. I am not interested in them at all, zero. They are at this point basically historical artifacts, of interest only to computer museums as far as I'm concerned. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRUE BSDs -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- All BSD issue reports unless trivial and obvious will require 1 of two things: 1. a full --debug 21 data dump so I don't have to spend days trying to get the information I need to resolve the issue, file by painful file, from the issue poster. This is only the start of the process, and realistically requires 2. to complete it. 2. direct SSH access to at least a comparable live BSD version/system, that is, if the issue is on a laptop, access has to be granted to the laptop, or a similar one. Option 2 is far preferred because in terms of my finite time on this planet of ours, the fact is, if I don't have direct (or SSH) access, I can't get much done, and the little I can get done will take 10 to 1000x longer than it should. That's my time spent (and sadly, with BSDs, largely wasted), not yours. I decided I have to adopt this much more strict policy with BSDs after wasting untold hours on trying to get good BSD support, only to see that support break a few years down the road as the data inxi relied on changed structure or syntax, or the tools changed, or whatever else makes the BSDs such a challenge to support. In the end, I realized, the only BSDs that are well supported are ones that I have had direct access to for debugging and testing. I will always accept patches that are well done, if they do not break GNU/Linux, and extend BSD support, or add new BSD features, and follow the internal inxi logic, and aren't too long. inxi sets initial internal flags to identify that it is a BSD system vs a GNU/Linux system, and preloads some data structures for BSD use, so make sure you understand what inxi is doing before you get into it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- APPLE CORPORATION OSX -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Non-free/libre OSX is in my view a BSD in name only. It is the least Unix-like operating system I've ever seen that claims to be a Unix, its tools are mutated, its data randomly and non-standardly organized, and it totally fails to respect the 'spirit' of Unix, even though it might pass some random tests that certify a system as a 'Unix'. If you want me to use my time on OSX features or issues, you have to pay me, because Apple is all about money, not freedom (that's what the 'free' in 'free software' is referring to, not cost), and I'm not donating my finite time in support of non-free operating systems, particularly not one with a market capitalization hovering around 1 trillion dollars, with usually well north of 100 billion dollars in liquid assetts. ================================================================================ MICROSOFT CORPORATION WINDOWS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To be quite clear, support for Windows will never happen, I don't care about Windows, and don't want to waste a second of my time on it. I also don't care about cygwin issues, beyond maybe hyper basic issues that can be handled with a line or two of code. inxi isn't going to ruin itself by trying to handle the silly Microsoft path separator \, and obviously there's zero chance of my trying to support PowerShell or whatever else they come up with. While I would consider doing Apple stuff if you paid my hourly full market rates, in advance, I would not consider touching Windows for any amount of money. My best advice there is, fork inxi, and do it yourself if you want it. You'll soon run screaming from the project however, once you realize what a nightmare you've stepped into. If you are interested in something like inxi for Windows, I suggest, rather than forking inxi, you just start out from scratch, and build the features up one by one, that will lead to much better code. ### EOF ###