[systemd-devel] [PATCH] ignore comments in multiline variable definitions

[Kay Sievers]

On Wed, Feb 13, 2013 at 9:52 PM, Zbigniew Jędrzejewski-Szmek
<zbyszek at in.waw.pl> wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 13, 2013 at 08:07:07PM +0100, Lennart Poettering wrote:
>> On Wed, 13.02.13 20:05, Zbigniew Jędrzejewski-Szmek (zbyszek at in.waw.pl) wrote:
>>
>> > Actually, the syntax already is _not_ a subset of the shell, and has its
>> > own pecularities. Anyone trying to blindly follow shell rules is going
>> > to be severly bitten anyway. So, why not go a bit further and change
>> > the syntax in a way that is useful for our users?
>>
>> It's certainly true that we are not compatible with shell, and that we
>> aren't even trying to be. But in this regard I see no reason to deviate.
>>
>> But let's take one step back. Can you make a good case why comments
>> should trump continuation lines?
> Status quo:
> useful only for long lines with a hash mark in the middle.
>
> Proposed:
> useful for commenting out a single line of a multi-line stanza,
> by editing only that line, which should be less error-prone.
>
> Repeating the example from the original bug report:
>
> SPAMD_ARGS="--socketpath=/var/lib/bulwark/spamd \
> --nouser-config \
> --virtual-config-dir=/var/lib/bulwark/domains/%l/%d \
> --siteconfigpath=/var/lib/bulwark/config \
> --username=bulwark \
> --max-children=25 \
> --timeout-child=600"
>
>    ||
>    \/
>
> SPAMD_ARGS="--socketpath=/var/lib/bulwark/spamd \
> --nouser-config \
> --virtual-config-dir=/var/lib/bulwark/domains/%l/%d \
> --siteconfigpath=/var/lib/bulwark/config \
> #--username=bulwark \
> --username=myusername \
> --max-children=25 \
> --timeout-child=600"
>
>> To me that doesn't even sound so
>> useful, and it would in fact surprise me if things would work that
>> way...

We should really be careful with adding "too smart" things here. If
the usual shell does not support this, if it really isn't something
commonly used, we really should not add that to systemd.

Actually, while I can see that people like these kind of "tricks", I
find that commented-out line in the middle of a stream of a cont line
a lot more a confusing than a useful feature; and I'm pretty sure we
should not try to support that.

Kay