Re: [PATCH 15/20] host/rootfs: Use real less, not BusyBox less

Alyssa Ross
2025-09-21T09:03:01Z

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Demi Marie Obenour <demiobenour@gmail.com> writes:

> On 9/19/25 14:45, Alyssa Ross wrote:
>> Demi Marie Obenour <demiobenour@gmail.com> writes:
>>
>>> On 9/8/25 05:25, Alyssa Ross wrote:
>>>> Demi Marie Obenour <demiobenour@gmail.com> 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 <demiobenour@gmail.com>
>>>>
>>>> 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.

I mean ideally I'd prefer we never have a debug build, because as soon
as that exists it'll start diverging from a real one. Would be fine to
distribute an extra image full of debugging tools or whatever though, in
a way that could be used on a real system as well as just in the
development environment.

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