inxi/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.

===============================================================================
Help inxi development! Submit a user 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 
 inxi version <= 2.3: inxi -@14
2. Generate, upload gz'ed debugger dataset. Leaves gz on your system:
 inxi version 3: inxi --debug 21
 inxi version <= 2.3: inxi -xx@14
3. Generate, upload, delete gz'ed debugger dataset:
 inxi version 3 only: 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 and BSD datasets are particularly appreciated because we simply do not 
have enough of those.

===============================================================================
Make inxi better! Get more support, fix broken items!

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 the BSD section below for qualifications re BSDs, and OSX in particular. 

===============================================================================
BRANCHES
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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 -Nc https://github.com/smxi/inxi/raw/master/inxi

OR easy to remember shortcut (which redirects to github):
wget -Nc https://smxi.org/inxi
wget -Nc smxi.org/inxi

'Tagging' is purely a formality that certain distros can't figure out how to 
do without, that's all. A tag is a pointer to a commit, and has no further 
meaning. 

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 
commmits, period. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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 -Nc https://github.com/smxi/inxi/raw/inxi-perl/pinxi

OR easy to remember shortcut (which redirects to github):
wget -Nc https://smxi.org/pinxi
wget -Nc smxi.org/pinxi

Once new features have been debugged, tested, and are stable, they will move 
to the master branch.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LEGACY BRANCH:
If you'd like to look at or check out the Gawk/Bash version of inxi, you can
find it here, at the inxi-legacy branch (binxi):

git clone https://github.com/smxi/inxi --branch inxi-legacy --single-branch

OR direct fast and easy install:
wget -Nc https://github.com/smxi/inxi/raw/inxi-legacy/binxi

OR easy to remember shortcut (which redirects to github):
wget -Nc 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.

===============================================================================
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. 

HTML MAN PAGE: https://smxi.org/docs/inxi-man.htm 
INXI OPTIONS PAGE: http://smxi.org/docs/inxi-options.htm 
NOTE: These may not always be up to date, but generally track the most recent
inxi commits.

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!).

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

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). 

===============================================================================
ABOUT INXI - CORE COMMITMENT TO LONG TERM STABILITY

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 old suggestion to use -c 0 to turn 
off colors is no longer required.

inxi should always show you your current system state, as far as possible, and
should be more reliable than your own beliefs about what is in your system,
ideally. In other words, the goal in inxi is to have it be right more than it 
is wrong about any system that it runs on. And not to rely on non current 
system state data if at all possible. Some things, like memory/ram data, rely 
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.

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. Ie, not 
Android, yet. 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.

===============================================================================
BSD SUPPORT

Real BSDs:
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. This fragmentation makes supporting BSDs far more difficult than it 
should be in the 21st century. The BSD support in inxi is an ongoing process, 
with more features being added as new data sources and types are discovered.

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 lost), 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 in 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.

OSX:
Do not insult real BSDs by calling OSX a BSD. OSX is the least Unix-like 
operating system I've ever seen that claims to be a Unix, its tools are 
mutated, it's 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. 

===============================================================================
INXI 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.

===============================================================================
INXI VERSION/SUPPORT/ISSUES/BUGS INFORMATION:

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 them, not here. 

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.

inxi is 'rolling release' software, just like Debian Sid, Gentoo, or Arch Linux 
are rolling release GNU/Linux distributions, with no 'release points'.

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).

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. 

===============================================================================

INXI 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. It could also be adding a very complicated 
expansion of existing features, like Wayland. It depends.

The third, "28", is for everything small, can cover bug fixes, tweaks to 
existing features to add support for something, 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 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 fine tuning can be quite significant, 
sometimes it's a one line code 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.

### EOF ###