[syslinux] submenus and menu title

[Ady Ady]

> Date: Fri, 3 Aug 2012 11:58:27 -0700
> From: hpa at zytor.com
> To: syslinux at zytor.com
> CC: ady-sf at hotmail.com
> Subject: Re: [syslinux] submenus and menu title
> 
> On 08/03/2012 03:11 AM, Ady Ady wrote:
> > 
> > Following the wiki and docs (and examples from several live CDs), I started with:
> > *** syslinux.cfg START ***
> > 
> > UI menu.c32
> > MENU TITLE My Main Title
> > 
> > MENU BEGIN hellotag
> > 
> > LABEL hellolabel
> > COM32 hello.c32
> > 
> > MENU END
> > 
> > MENU BEGIN lstag
> > 
> > LABEL lslabel
> > COM32 ls.c32
> > 
> > MENU END
> > 
> > *** syslinux.cfg FINISH ***
> > 
> > From there, I tried MANY other variations so to get the same (supposedly inherited) menu title, but I was not successful.
> > I could post those many alternatives too if necessary (just let me know). I just don't won't to make this more confusing than necessary.
> > I understand that some directives take precedence over the menu title, preventing it from being inherited "as-is" to its submenus. But in my case I actually indeed want the same menu title in the submenus. So, how do I get _that_ result?
> > TIA. 
> 
> That looks like it should work. We might have a bug there.
> 
> -hpa
> 
I'm not sure what you meant with "should work". The behavior I see with those submenus (and with the alternatives I tried) is that the respective tagmenu takes precedence over the menu title, which means that the main menu title is not inherited by the submenus. Maybe this precedence is intentional, but then the documentation should be corrected.
Moreover, when I intentionally repeat the same "menu title" directive between the "menu begin" / "menu end" submenu (so to force the same menu title), then this (repeated) menu title directive takes precedence over the respective tagmenu in the parent menu.
All this means that the menu title in the submenus is always the same as the menu entry shown in the parent menu. Either the menu title shown in the resulting submenu is in fact the "tagmenu"; or the entry shown in the parent menu (usually, the "tagmenu") is replaced by the menu title directive used in the submenu.
The resulting behavior is that, in practical terms, the same menu title can't be used in more than one submenu because the parent entries shown would be the same for all the respective submenus.
The problem seems to be some kind of "mix" between the "tagmenu" and the "menu title" of the respective submenu. Instead of having different meanings and adequate precedence (whichever the adequate precedence should be), they act as if they were the same directive (in terms of the resulting (sub)menu being displayed).
If the above paragraphs are not clear, I could provide menu examples so you can compare the results against the menu I already posted. Just let me know.
Again, which is supposed to be the adequate syslinux.cfg content so to be able to show the same menu title in all submenus as the one used in the parent menu? This is the goal.
TIA.