[syslinux] comments about 5.00pre10

Matt Fleming matt at console-pimps.org
Mon Nov 26 05:20:11 PST 2012


On Sun, 2012-11-18 at 06:56 +0200, Ady wrote:
> > > 4_ About "win: Print error message if we fail to install to 
> > > --directory". When running the (Windows-based) installer with 
> > > "--directory" and the directory path doesn't exist in the destination 
> > > device, the installer tries to use the "/" directory instead. Is this 
> > > the correct expected behavior? I previously suggested that the 
> > > installer should error out with "no such directory [exists]" or 
> > > similar.
> > 
> > Well, it's the expected behaviour insofar as this is the way that it has
> > always worked. I suppose if we fail to move the files we should delete
> > the one from / too.
> > 
> 
> I'm not sure about what you mean with "move the files".
> 
> "syslinux.exe --directory /boot/syslinux --install a:" (empty fat12 
> formatted volume, so directory not yet created). The command errors 
> out, as it should, but it still leaves ldlinux.sys on "a:/". Do you 
> mean that the file(s) are first copied to the root of the volume and 
> then moved to the "--directory"? If that's the case, maybe it should 
> FIRST check for the existence of the destination directory (together 
> with any other condition to be met), and only _then_ install the 
> files if appropriate?

Yes, the files are initially copied to the root directory, then moved to
the installation directory. What we should really be doing is just
creating the directory if it doesn't exist, like we do for the linux
installer.

> > > _ Even though I changed to a different CWD, it still runs the 
> > > commands without the need to type the path. Strange. It may be useful 
> > > in some cases, and problematic in others.
> > 
> > How did you change the current work directory? Syslinux 5.00 includes a
> > "PATH" variable that is similar to the one used by other command shells.
> > It's default value is "/boot/syslinux:/boot", so if your command files
> > are installed in either of these two paths, even if your cwd is
> > somewhere else, Syslinux will find them.
> > 
> 
> Well, regarding PATH,  the following questions, among others, should 
> be answered in the documentation for 5.00 (if they will, then I don't 
> need the answers now, so please don't waste your time on them now).
> 
> What happens if 2 images located in 2 different directories, with 
> both directories being part of PATH, have the same name? What happens 
> if 2 images have almost the same name, as image.c32 and image.bin for 
> example? In which order the default PATH is searched for a matching 
> image filename?  What's the default PATH when using variants other 
> than SYSLINUX?
> 
> BTW, the default PATH seems to include "/" too.

PATH is designed to work the same way as in a POSIX shell.

> > > Testing in a VBox VM:
> > > 
> > > _ hdt.c32:
> > > Undef symbol FAIL: cpu_flags_strings
> > 
> > Hmm... right, that's because libcom32gpl.c32 isn't distributed with the
> > Syslinux releases, and it's that library that the provides the
> > 'cpu_flags_strings' symbol. I'll look into what we're supposed to do for
> > hdt.c32 for the releases.
> > 
> 
> Is this the same (or similar) for hello.c32? Or is the new hello.c32 
> behavior the expected one?

The hello.c32 behaviour looks fine.

-- 
Matt Fleming, Intel Open Source Technology Center




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