Re: [PATCH 2/3] net: Restore printing of the help text with "-nic help"

[Claudio Fontana]

On 11/8/22 09:59, Thomas Huth wrote:
> On 08/11/2022 09.52, Claudio Fontana wrote:
>> On 11/8/22 09:42, Thomas Huth wrote:
>>> On 07/11/2022 13.27, Claudio Fontana wrote:
>>>> should -net and -netdev be adapted too?
>>>
>>> "-netdev help" already works just fine ... and "-net" should IMHO rather be
>>> removed than improved ;-)
>>>
>>>    Thomas
>>>
>>
>> I wonder if it could be done once for all, in net_init_clients,
>> instead of repeating the is_help_option in net_init_netdev and net_param_nic
>> (and that would take care of net_init_client too, so we'd get "net" for 
>> free)..
> 
> I don't think that it makes too much sense to have one option for all - 
> since all three CLI options are slightly different anyway. E.g. "-net nic" 
> only exists for "-net", "hubport" cannot be used with "-net", "-nic" can 
> also be used to configure the NIC model, etc.
> 
>   Thomas
> 

Hi Thomas, I would not suggest to merge everything together,

I was considering whether it would make sense to just check the "type" id for 
is_help_option
once, since all the options "net", "netdev", "nic" have a "type" 
implied_opt_name,

and so it should be possible to make a list of structs that signify what to do 
for "net", "netdev", "nic", and 
loop on that and check for that help string once,

and then split off the codepath into the "net", "netdev", "nic" - specific code 
as it is now,
either manually or by storing the function that is now in the foreach as a 
function pointer in the struct, ie moving the is_help_option check one level up.

However, it might not be worth it since it seems that for "nic" the nic models 
need to also be printed, so it might make things needlessly verbose.

Not sure, have not tried to write the code for it.

Ciao,

Claudio