[syslinux] suggestions for global APPEND consistency

Gene Cumm
Tue, 12 Feb 2013 21:17:57 -0000

On Tue, Feb 12, 2013 at 3:17 PM, Ady <ady-sf at hotmail.com>
wrote:
> Hello Syslinux Team,
>
> I have some suggestions / requests regarding global APPEND commands.
> These would make the behavior more consistent and more useful for
> practical cases.
>
> 1_ Add some functionality equivalent to "APPEND -" to the command
> prompt.
>
> 2_ Activate the functionality of ONERROR from [vesa]menu.c32 too.
> Currently, ONERROR only works from the command prompt.

This seems like it's a separate discussion and a possible bug.  I'm
guessing you observe this when (vesa)menu.c32 is used as UI or DEFAULT
with a reduced TIMEOUT.  Perhaps "ONERROR menu.c32 errmenu.cfg" will
show different behavior (in which case it's likely a config error not
a bug).

> 3_ Add a new directive that would function as global APPEND, with the
> difference that it could be merged with specific KERNEL+INITRD+APPEND
> commands (those that are used after LABEL). *Just for the purpose of
> this email*, let's call it [MENU] GAPPEND (Please forgive me if using
> the word "MENU" for this new suggested directive is not
appropriate;
> the concepts I post here are still applicable without this word, so I
> will use [MENU] GAPPEND). The resulting generic command would be:
> KERNEL + [MENU] GAPPEND + INITRD + APPEND (in this order). Any of the
> four parts of this resulting command could be not-explicitly stated
> in the cfg file.
>
> 4_ When pressing TAB on a LABEL in [vesa]menu.c32, the command line
> should display ALL the resulting commands, including [MENU] GAPPEND.

That's the trick about global APPENDs: they are always applied unless
there's a different APPEND.

> 5_ For [MENU] GAPPEND, if the resulting command is manually edited in
> the boot prompt, the edition should be respected (as oppose to
> silently forcing [MENU] GAPPEND).

As I've stated, I feel the most useful option is to either
A) remove the global APPENDs
B) discourage users from using them.

> TIA,
> Ady.

--
-Gene