[Bug 1366451] Re: "mksh -v" should display mksh's version number, plus the attached chunk of text, onscreen

[Jason Spiro]

In various comments, Thorsten Glaser wrote:

> This is actually a good idea.

Thank you :)

> Maybe they should tag those questions [mksh] on SE
> and I should subscribe that tag there.

A lot of the people who type "help" might not actually have questions
about mksh:  they may instead have questions about how to use head,
tail, grep, logcat, or other tools.  People who have questions about
mksh, and who are SE-savvy, can figure out how to tag the questions
[mksh] themselves.  And even poorly-tagged questions can be retagged
later.

Also, it's hard to advise users how to tag their questions inside a
small Help screen, especially if some of them have never used SE before.
And, if we provide tagging instructions, it may make SE sound like a
scary and restrictive place.

> “help” is aliased to “man” in most beginner-friendly GNU/Linux
> distributions, in /etc/profile usually.

Really?  Which distros?

The "man" command on a line by itself, without specifying a desired
manpage, is quite useless for a total newbie.  "man ls" is obscure, and
"man cat" is useless.

"man intro", which ships with many Linux distributions, is pretty useful
for newbies, though the initial "DESCRIPTION" section at the top is
obscure and may make them give up reading early on.  (You can view "man
intro" online at <http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/intro.1.html>.)

But Android doesn't ship a "man" command.

> I’m not going to embed long texts like this in the binary.
> The embedded customers (Android, OpenWrt, FreeWRT, OpenADK, etc.)
> would not like that size increase.

Might you be willing to please embed the text in a function in
<http://www.mirbsd.org/cvs.cgi/src/bin/mksh/dot.mkshrc?rev=HEAD> instead
of in the mksh binary?

If there exists even one embedded customer who is unhappy with the size
increase, they can simply cut it out of their distribution.  I suspect,
though, that nobody will mind.

Anyway, you're better at shell scripting than me.  :)

> Also, a link to the mksh
> docs may be appropriate.

How's this?

--- start of help ---
mksh R50b

This is mksh, the MirBSD Korn Shell.

You can use a shell to perform advanced administrative and troubleshooting tasks.
On Android, you can also use it to capture screenshots and screencasts.

To work with files and directories:
    See <http://www.cs.bu.edu/teaching/unix/reference/commands.html>.

To work with Android logs, packages, databases, screencasts, and the like:
    See <http://developer.android.com/tools/help/adb.html#shellcommands>.

To view the mksh homepage and manpage:
    Please visit <http://mirbsd.de/mksh>.

To find out which version of mksh you are using:
    Enter this command:  ( echo $KSH_VERSION )

If you have a question, comment, bug report, or suggestion:
    On Android:  Please visit <http://android.stackexchange.com/>.
    On other systems:  Please visit <http://unix.stackexchange.com/>.

--- end of help ---

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1366451

Title:
  "mksh -v" should display mksh's version number, plus the attached
  chunk of text, onscreen

Status in The MirBSD Korn Shell:
  Opinion
Status in “mksh” package in Ubuntu:
  Opinion
Status in “mksh” package in Debian:
  Opinion

Bug description:
  It's customary in the Unix world that "-v" or "--version" displays a
  program's version. If someone is logged into an Android device, you
  want to make it easy for them to find out which shell is installed.
  How can you do this? One way is to offer a "-v" option which will tell
  them the answer (and will also tell them mksh's version number).

  May I suggest that, if the user runs "mksh -v", then mksh should echo
  the following to stdout, after which it should immediately exit.

  --- cut here ---
  mksh R50b+cvs
  This is mksh, the MirBSD Korn Shell.

  Homepage:  <http://mirbsd.de/mksh>.

  Copyright (C) 2002-2014 Thorsten Glaser.
  This is open-source software; see <https://www.mirbsd.org/TaC-mksh.txt> for copying conditions.

  This work is provided "AS IS" and WITHOUT WARRANTY of any kind, to
  the utmost extent permitted by applicable law, neither express nor
  implied; without malicious intent or gross negligence.

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