On 9/19/25 14:45, Alyssa Ross wrote: > Demi Marie Obenour writes: > >> On 9/8/25 05:25, Alyssa Ross wrote: >>> Demi Marie Obenour writes: >>> >>>> The version of less in BusyBox cannot handle horizontal scrolling, so it >>>> is much less useful for debugging than less(1). As long as it less is >>>> needed, it is better to have a more useful version. >>>> >>>> Signed-off-by: Demi Marie Obenour >>> >>> Is it needed? >> >> When I was debugging, I kept getting frustrated with limitations >> of Busybox less. This patch helped me quite a bit, so yes, I think >> it is needed. > > What I mean is: is less needed at all? (I was referring to you saying > "as long as less is needed".) > > So far I haven't added tools that are only useful for debugging to the > image (although the core dump handler is an exception). I frequently > use strace, for example, but I don't think it really belongs as part of > the system image. less is only really present at all because it snuck > is as part of busybox. I also don't want to have images used for > development to differ from the real ones, because then wee can miss > stuff in testing more easily. So here's an idea: what if we attach an > extra block device in "make run" that includes some debugging tools, and > then that can easily be mounted to get the extra tools when needed for > development, while still being able to use a normal build of the > Spectrum host system? That's a great idea! I'll work on it later, though. In the future it might make sense to provide a debug build of Spectrum for use by developers tracking down problems. That's a task for even further in the future. -- Sincerely, Demi Marie Obenour (she/her/hers)