Re: [Jack-Devel] A kit of (commandline) standard-tools?

Hello

On Thu, 20 Oct 2011 23:56:46 +0200
Adrian Knoth <[hidden]> wrote:

> On Thu, Oct 20, 2011 at 11:47:58PM +0200, k wrote:
> 
> Hi!
> 
> > jack is great stuff, but i think it's missing a set of tools wich
> > should be included in mainstream distributions, along with a fixed,
> > minimalist but thorough set of options and features to enable easy use
> > of jack from the commandline and embedded systems. ...i mean that
> > 'unix'-way.
> 
> This paragraph makes no sense at all to me. I don't know how you use
> jack, but most of the time, it's all via command line tools over here.
Yes me too, i think you missed the point.

> And last but not least: if you want to change defaults for your
> distribution, why do you talk to upstream? File bug reports against the
> distribution instead.
no

> > I thought about this when doing field-recording with arecord
> > (alsa-tools standard commandline record tool) piped to the
> > flac-commandline-encoder. I know of and i use jack_capture for this
> > now, but i really think that tools like this should be included
> > officially (so to say: $ apt-get install jack-tools). 
> 
> I still fail to undestand your point. apt-get install jack-capture
It's not included in my debian repository (debian 5). Is it in 6? Then i'm sorry. But it's "third-party". Can i be sure my scripts work with it, let's say, a year from now? 

> > In my oppinion this would also include common tools like jack_connect
> > or jack_lsp,
> 
> Huu? jack_connect and jack_lsp are part of the jackd package. What's
> wrong with that?
I didnt say anything against it, did you read my mail entirely? 
It's lacking documentation, and i don't trust that commandline-"interface" to be consistent over time. that is all.
(this is what i trust about arecord, amixer, etc. my scripts for these tools are years old and still work.)

> > output) and better documentation, for using in scripts. This should
> 
> Go ahead and fix the manpage. You have the source, there is an issue
> tracker. It's that easy.
> 
> > also mean better parse(grep)-able output from iE jack_lsp (whose
> > output is somewhat ugly to parse because of the multiple lines of
> > output).
> 
> The more you write the less I understand.
> 
> BTW: Have you noticed that there is bash-completion for jack? It parses
> the jack_lsp output. One port per line, could it be easier?
I was talking about scripting, not interactive shell. I was thinking about something like grepping (from one line) physical outputs and using the portnames for jack-connect. jack_lsp --properties gives 2 lines for a port. Whats your point with bash-completion here? anyway...

I know (and i think i made clear) that the issues mentioned are all possible to do right now (and so i am using it), but my concerns were about consistency, consistency to new versions of jack, to newer distributions, etc.


> > The templated man-pages of jack_*-tools in my debianbox are
> > not very helpful, either.
> 
> As above, go and fix it
Ok, as i mentioned, i am no developer and not used in any processes involved in developing software, that mailing list was the only way to express that thoughts.
I still think this is an issue, but as you said, i'll fix it for myself. 
(hopefully not on every apt-get upgrade...)

Cheers

1319149248.1161_0.ltw:2,a <20111021002326.72135827 at sledgehammer dot q>