Re: Enable compgen even when programmable completions are not available?

[Chet Ramey]

On 7/2/23 9:17 AM, Sam James wrote:

> > The dynamic loader has to know where the library is. If you don't call
> > readline, it shouldn't ever have to actually map it into the process.
>
> I think it still has to map it even with lazy binding, but I'm not
> really worried about this point much.

I was trying to point out that even dragging a shared library with
functions you never call isn't that expensive these days. But it's only
an efficiency concern, not a functional one.


> There's a few open questions here:
> 1. Is the inconsistency between functions and variables desirable here?
> (i.e. functions being something we can handle via `declare`, but
> variables needing `compgen`?)

It seems like a choice in the interest of robustness on Gentoo's part.
From the shell's perspective, it can use the output of `declare -p' as
input just fine to recreate the variable values.

> 2. Is something on-by-default enough of a signal that you should rely
> on it being available? Can I suggest editing the configure help text
> to make clear you strongly recommend it be enabled?

How about a note in the installation documentation that you can't count
on getting everything described in the mamual if you change any of the
configuration options. You can enable or disable any of the configuration
options you want -- anyone can -- but you can't expect to escape the
consequences of doing so.

--
``The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.'' - Chaucer
                 ``Ars longa, vita brevis'' - Hippocrates
Chet Ramey, UTech, CWRU    chet@case.edu    http://tiswww.cwru.edu/~chet/