Re: [bug-recutils] Several questions and comments

[Brian Zwahr]

> That's a nice idea.  I just wrote it down.  Of course they would only do
> that when they are invoked interactively, right?

Yes, I would think so. It'd be a great addition!

> Would you like to give it a try? :)

If I can find the time, I just might. I probably won't find the time, though, 
especially since I'd have to learn/relearn the programming language. :-)

> You will have to concatenate several sorts for that.

What do you mean by this? I don't understand. Do you have an example?

> I will fix [the network drive bug] soon in a new release.

Awesome! I look forward to it!

On Sat, Jan 26, 2019, at 9:48 AM, Jose E. Marchesi wrote:
> 
> Hello Brian.
> 
>     I've been using recutils, and I really like it! I've found it to be
>     quite useful. However, I've read through the documentation, and there's
>     several things I either don't know how to do, don't work, or that I
>     think would be good to be able to do. I'd like to mention them all here
>     and see if anyone has answers or suggestions.
> 
> Let's see if I can be of any help... :)
> 
>     1) Is there a way to programmatically create and defined a record type?
>        recins and recset let you add record entries of a given type, but I
>        don't see any commands, arguments, or flags that let you define a new
>        record type with fields, constraints, etc.
> 
> Currently, no, there isn't a way to do that programmatically.
> 
> I always thought it would be the role of "recinf" to _read_ the
> properties of a record set... but setting them... no.
> 
> I guess it would be nice to have something like that.  After all, record
> descriptors are just records? or they aren't? :)
> 
>     2) With recset, is it possible to set multiple fields at once?
> 
> Yes.  You can specify several fields with -f, like in:
> 
> $ recset -f foo,bar -s XXX foo.rec
> 
>     3) With recins/recset, I think it'd be great to see the added/updated
>        records. Currently, I use recsel to find the record I want to update,
>        then use recset to update it, then use recsel again to see the
>        updated record to make sure it was updated properly. It'd be nice if
>        that third setup wasn't necessary because recset did it
>        automatically.
> 
> That's a nice idea.  I just wrote it down.  Of course they would only do
> that when they are invoked interactively, right?
> 
>     4) Is there a way to disallow all types that aren't defined as
>        mandatory or allowed for a type? I'd like to restrict a record type
>        to only the specifically defined fields. This would be useful in
>        preventing typos, like accidentally adding "Noets" instead of
>        "Notes" to a record.
> 
> That's the purpose of %allowed.  From the user manual:
> 
> "If there are more or one '%allowed' fields in a record descriptor, all
>  fields of all the records in the record set must be in the union of
>  '%allowed', '%mandatory' and '%key'.  Otherwise an integrity error is
>  raised."
> 
>     5) Is it possible to update text fields by appending to them? I have a
>        Notes field that I use, which I will occasionally update by appending
>        to it. Currently, I either have to use recsel to get the current
>        value, then edit the record with the current value appended by the
>        new notes I want to add or I have to manually edit the document.
> 
> No, that's not possible.  I guess this could be achieved adding a new
> option to recset... -A maybe?  Or more generally, figuring out a way to
> refer to the existing contents of the field in -s or -S.  Would you like
> to give it a try? :)
> 
>     6) Is it possible to define multiple fields for sorting with %sort%?
>        For instance, if I want to sort by Brand then Product, instead of
>        just Brand.
> 
> Nope.  You will have to concatenate several sorts for that.
> 
>     7) This is specific to the macOS Homebrew installation of recutils, but
>        the info documentation didn't get installed. Does anyone happen to
>        know how to fix that or get it installed?
> 
> No clue.
> 
>     8) Commands that modify a recfile, like recins, recset, and recfix --
>        auto, don't seem to work when the recfile is on a network drive. For
>        instance, I use pCloud for cloud storage (instead of Dropbox, etc.).
>        pCloud works first and foremost by setting up basically a cloud
>        network drive on your computer. On macOS, it's at ~/pCloud Drive and
>        on Windows its drive P: (which I mount to /mnt/p in the Windows Linux
>        Subsystem), by default. Trying to modify recfiles directly in these
>        locations fails. For instance, just now on my Mac, trying to edit a
>        file with recfix --auto results in:
>     recfix: error: renaming file
>     /var/folders/2p/2ksrj79s3tj08ztq2q4lh5280000gn/T/recQi0IZr to test.rec
>     Seems like it can copy the file to a temporary file, which it then
>     modified, then when it tried to copy the modified temp file back to
>     replace the original recfile, it can't.
> 
> Yes, I am aware of that bug.  Basically, recutils is using the rename(2)
> standard function, that does not work across filesystems.  I will fix it
> soon in a new release.
> 
>     9) Small English grammar note: On the FAQ, page  one of the questions is
>        "What is the name of the turtles?" but it should be "What are the
>        names of the turtles?" instead.
>     https://www.gnu.org/software/recutils/faq.html
> 
> I just fixed that right now!
> Thanks, and welcome!