[syslinux] submenus and menu title

Gene Cumm gene.cumm at gmail.com
Mon Sep 17 02:29:53 PDT 2012


On Sun, Sep 16, 2012 at 1:28 PM, Ady <ady-sf at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> Date sent:              Sun, 16 Sep 2012 09:40:06 -0700
> From:                   "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa at zytor.com>
> To:                     For discussion of Syslinux and tftp-hpa
> <syslinux at zytor.com>
> Subject:                Re: [syslinux] submenus and menu title
>
>> On 09/14/2012 05:32 PM, Gene Cumm wrote:
>> >>
>> >> The addition of these two statements (assuming this was the
>> >> implementation intention) would correct the documentation bug.
>> >
>> > HPA, is this documentation alteration the proper intention OR should
>> > the menu system be corrected, including a change such that the
>> > tagname, if set, is always shown in the parent and probably an
>> > additional directive 'MENU INHERITTITLE' to state that the tagname
>> > should be shown on the parent and the title of the child should be the
>> > same as the parent.  OR should the tagname not affect the child's
>> > title?
>> >
>>
>> My general philosophy on these kinds of things:
>>
>> It is a bad thing to change established behavior (since it might break
>> people's existing configurations.)  However, if the current behavior is
>> useless to people AND the corrected behavior would be useful to people,
>> then it is worth fixing.
>>
>> I'm not sure this applies here, though, what do you guys think?
>>
>> Sorry for late replies.  I have been psychotically busy.
>>
>>       -hpa
>>
>> --
>
> 1._ Menu entry in parent menu.

I'll agree except that it should be more concise.

Under MENU LABEL, to the effect of:
'When no "MENU LABEL" is used directly under a "MENU BEGIN" directive,
the order of precedence of explicitly specified directives is the
submenu's "MENU TITLE", the submenu's tagname, or an empty string'

> 2._ Menu title in the submenu (submenu title).

Similar note and under "MENU TITLE", 'For submenus lacking a "MENU
TITLE" directive ..."

> Note that "2.1" and "2.1.1" are already being used in version 4.05,
> but are not documented.
> The additional suggested fallback rules only improve 2 cases, in
> which previously the submenu title would be blank. THIS MEANS THAT
> PRACTICAL EXISTING CONFIGURATION FILES MAINTAIN THE CURRENT BEHAVIOR
> EVEN AFTER THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ADDITIONAL SUGGESTED CONDITIONS.

Summary:

1) doc bug/conflict: It needs to be stated that "MENU LABEL" is valid
for a "MENU BEGIN"; "MENU END" block.

2) code bug per doc/menu.txt: "Submenus inherit the properties of
their parent menus" however submenus do not inherit the title at this
time.

3) feature request: Allow the "MENU BEGIN" tagname to be used as the
submenu's title.  This enhancement would allow a
config author to compact the config by using the tagname for jumping
via "MENU GOTO", parent labeling and submenu title.

-- 
-Gene



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