ctlmp/ctlconvert_txt EOF request [PSARC/2007/365 FastTrack timeout 09/28/2007]

[Suresh Chandrasekharan]

Thanks much for the quick response. Pl. see my comments inlined.

James Carlson wrote:
> Suresh Chandrasekharan writes:
>   
>> Pl. view this request as an EOF announcement for print filter 
>> consolidation similar to we did for PSARC/2001/754.
>>     
>
> OK.
>
>   
>> James Carlson wrote:
>>     
>>> If so, then what must they do on upgrade to a Nevada-based release?
>>> Does the upgrade process itself automatically adjust the print filters
>>> to the new mechanism, or is there a document that explains the
>>> necessary customer action?
>>>   
>>>       
>> The following is the mechanism used for alerting the customers about the 
>> EOF.
>>
>> The EOF notice a message "ctlmp: This utility will be removed from next 
>> Solaris Major release. Please use mp(1) print filter or another suitable 
>>     
>
> Given that we're not planning any Major releases, and haven't had one
> for 15+ years, that's probably not the right wording.
>
> It should say instead:
>
> 	This utility may be removed from a future Solaris release.
>   
Thanks for pointing that out. Will do like that.
>   
>> printing mechanism instead" will output to stderr for each invocation of 
>> ctlmp.
>>     
>
> Who would see that message?  Isn't this something that is likely to be
> buried under either lots of scripting or a GUI for most users?
>   
Both these are command line utilities. Users will see the message when 
running them unless they are redirecting stderr to /dev/null (which is 
possible if these are run as a part of the script)
> I think there needs to be at least a release note for this.
>   
This will be release noted for sure.
>   
>> Pl. see the reasons for EOFing ctlconvert-txt in the OVERVIEW 
>> section of the fasttrack one pager submitted. "ctlconvert-txt: This 
>> utility will be removed from next Solaris Major release. Please use 
>> mp(1) print filter or another suitable printing mechanism instead".
>>     
>
> Also inaccurate wording -- Solaris 10, for example, was a Minor
> release.  Solaris Nevada hasn't been released yet (so doesn't formally
> have a binding yet), but currently admits only Minor-binding projects.
> (Modulo the mind-bending confusion over consolidations ...)
>
>   
Noted. The wording will be changed.
>>> If there's customer action required, is this something that customers
>>> can do (prior to upgrade) on existing S10 and S9 systems when the EOF
>>> notice is released?  Or is it an upgrade-break-fix cycle?
>>>       
>
> Is there an answer to these questions?  Can the user prepare for this
> change, or does the system just break on upgrade?
>
>   
For ctlmp user can prepare for the upgrade by making use of mp(1) print 
filter in places where ctlmp is used inside a script. For ctlconvert-txt 
the part of the script which converts text to presentation forms and 
then piping to a print filter need to be replaced by mp(1) filter. Will 
be documented in the release notes.

Suresh