[syslinux] Ideas for contrib infrastructure

H. Peter Anvin
Mon, 01 Dec 2003 07:47:37 -0000

Especially with Murali's stuff the question about how to handle contrib
stuff that isn't part of the syslinux core has come up again.

I think it's necessary to make it clear that it's not part of my stuff
to keep the support load under control.

I see a couple of possibilities:

a) Inclusion with the syslinux source in a contrib/ directory, with
subdirectories for different components, e.g.
syslinux-<version>/contrib/autoboot for Murali's autoboot stuff.

	+ Very easy to find.
	- Tied to syslinux release cycle.

b) A separate syslinux-contrib tarball.

	+ Still pretty easy to find.
	+ Not necessarily tied to syslinux release cycle.
	- One more thing to get.
	- No easy way for the user to know ahead of time what
	  this thing contains.
	- Implicit dependency on syslinux tar ball for include files,
           etc.

c) Links on the syslinux page.  In other words, no real contrib
distribution, but a place to post syslinux additions.

	+ Not tied to syslinux release cycle.
	+ I'm not in the loop for making upgrades/improvements.
	- The least "unified" option.

Again, I'd really appreciate advice.  I think it's wonderful that
we're
starting to see independently developed addons for syslinux, which of
course was part of the whole idea with the COMBOOT/COM32 API work.

	-hpa