[Bug-wget] [bug #54826] too much output on wget --version

[J]

URL:
<https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54826>

Summary: too much output on wget --version
Project: GNU Wget
Submitted by: now3d
Submitted on: Fri 12 Oct 2018 09:55:35 AM UTC
Category: None
Severity: 3 - Normal
Priority: 5 - Normal
Status: None
Privacy: Public
Assigned to: None
Originator Name:
Originator Email:
Open/Closed: Open
Discussion Lock: Any
Release: 1.19.4
Operating System: None
Reproducibility: None
Fixed Release: None
Planned Release: None
Regression: None
Work Required: None
Patch Included: None

_______________________________________________________

Details:

Hello

I noticed contary to other GNU tools, wget --version has a lot of extra output
about the compiler build. Can that be removed?

If needed, wget --build-info could be added?

Thanks, Jonny


$ wget --version
GNU Wget 1.19.4 built on linux-gnu.

-cares +digest -gpgme +https +ipv6 +iri +large-file -metalink +nls
+ntlm +opie +psl +ssl/openssl

Wgetrc:
/etc/wgetrc (system)
Locale:
/usr/share/locale
Compile:
gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -DSYSTEM_WGETRC="/etc/wgetrc"
-DLOCALEDIR="/usr/share/locale" -I. -I../../src -I../lib
-I../../lib -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -DHAVE_LIBSSL -DNDEBUG
-g -O2 -fdebug-prefix-map=/build/wget-LB8XFP/wget-1.19.4=.
-fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security
-DNO_SSLv2 -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64 -g -Wall
Link:
gcc -DHAVE_LIBSSL -DNDEBUG -g -O2
-fdebug-prefix-map=/build/wget-LB8XFP/wget-1.19.4=.
-fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security
-DNO_SSLv2 -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64 -g -Wall -Wl,-Bsymbolic-functions
-Wl,-z,relro -Wl,-z,now -lpcre -luuid -lidn2 -lssl -lcrypto -lpsl
ftp-opie.o openssl.o http-ntlm.o ../lib/libgnu.a

Copyright (C) 2015 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Licence GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later
<http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Originally written by Hrvoje Niksic <***@xemacs.org>.
Please send bug reports and questions to <bug-***@gnu.org>.





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[Darshit Shah]

Update of bug #54826 (project wget):

Severity: 3 - Normal => 1 - Wish

_______________________________________________________

Follow-up Comment #1:

Why exactly? As a developer I like that information in the --version output
since it gives me clear information about the build when trying to debug an
issue remotely.

And I don't see how a little extra information in the --version output harms
anything at all. Do you have any concrete reasons apart from a personal
preference?

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[J]

Follow-up Comment #2, bug #54826 (project wget):

wget is a user application. No other GNU package clutters the --version output
in such a manner. What's the rationale for dumping the build config into the
--version output? I can't see any valid reason to keep build config output
there.

***@asus:~$ gcc --version
gcc (Ubuntu 7.3.0-27ubuntu1~18.04) 7.3.0
Copyright (C) 2017 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

***@asus:~$ bash --version
GNU bash, version 4.4.19(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)
Copyright © 2016 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>

This is free software; you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
***@asus:~$ ls --version
ls (GNU coreutils) 8.28
Copyright (C) 2017 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later
<http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Written by Richard M. Stallman and David MacKenzie.
***@asus:~$ cp --version
cp (GNU coreutils) 8.28
Copyright (C) 2017 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later
<http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Written by Torbjorn Granlund, David MacKenzie and Jim Meyering.
***@asus:~$ ld --version
GNU ld (GNU Binutils for Ubuntu) 2.30
Copyright (C) 2018 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This program is free software; you may redistribute it under the terms of
the GNU General Public Licence version 3 or (at your option) a later version.
This program has absolutely no warranty.
***@asus:~$


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[Darshit Shah]

Update of bug #54826 (project wget):

Status: None => Wont Fix
Open/Closed: Open => Closed

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Follow-up Comment #3:

Sure, you've shown that a bunch of other programs don't dump the compile time
options. But that's not a rationale for removing it. I still don't see a
reason why I should remove it now that it is already in there? We've had this
output for ~10 years now and as a developer, I know it's been helpful on
occasion when debugging something for a user.

I'm closing this bug for now. If you have a good reason for why it should not
be there, apart from, "I don't like it", or "the others don't do it", please
feel free to re-open.

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[J]

Follow-up Comment #4, bug #54826 (project wget):

There is no reason to cling to old output, just because it was put that way
~10 years ago.

Evolution, and rationalisation are vital for software. Unfortunately in
software engineering there are engineers unwilling to change, that really
holds back a lot of packages.


Look what happened when GCC wouldn't open up, that came back together as
2.95.

Again, look what happen when GCC again wouldn't open up. LLVM was born.

I've said my piece - I'm always positive about improving software :)

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[Tim Ruehsen]

Follow-up Comment #5, bug #54826 (project wget):

The best reason to *keep* that ouput is that is was put like that ~10years (or
maybe 20 ?) ago. There are production scripts out there that parse the output
of wget --version.

Apart from that, you are right. And I wish we could just drop bw compat. At
least that would be more fun - but we have to be responsible as well.

And LLVM is just a completely different approach to compilation / translation.
LowLevelVirtualMachine... gcc could translate into it as well... but the
ethics are different and thus the licenses.

And comparing clang / gcc as frontend to the C language... clang still refuses
to compile nested functions which is a blocker to use it in my company. We use
nested functions since 20 years, no way to rewrite the stable code (makes it
much more complicated and would introduce bugs).

And gcc can so so much more, see
https://www.linux.com/blog/2018/10/gcc-optimizing-linux-internet-and-everything

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[J]

Follow-up Comment #6, bug #54826 (project wget):

Good link, thank you.

at least wget2 --version doesn't have this. Let's hope no one adds it to
wget2! ;-)

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[Tim Ruehsen]

Follow-up Comment #7, bug #54826 (project wget):

Oh good point, we forgot it so far :-)

At least we have to add the Copyright and bug report lines.

The Wgetrc/Locale/Compile/Link stuff should be ok with a different option,
e.g. --version in combination with --debug or so.

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