[Nut-upsdev] Format of entires in data/driver.list

[Arnaud Quette]

2007/5/22, Arjen de Korte <nut+devel at de-korte.org>:
> I want to propose to change the format of the entries in the
> data/driver.list file. Currently the format is (according to the header)
>
> # <manufacturer> <model name> <model extra> <driver>
>
> Of these fields, the <model extra> field is not very well defined now. For
> many devices, it contains information about the communication interface
> used (serial / USB / SNMP) while for others it says something very model
> specific (for instance, which cable to use) or which protocol the UPS
> uses. Now that we're seeing more and more UPSes with both serial and USB
> connections, I think it makes sense to add another (mandatory) field that
> lists the communication interface used by the driver. This allows for
> easier sorting of the list of drivers, now that the list is growing.
>
> I also want to suggest that if a UPS has both serial and USB interfaces,
> but we currently only support one, that we mention the other too with 'not
> supported' in the <driver> field. This will help users determine quickly
> (and unambiguously) if they can use the interface of their choice with
> NUT.
>
> Any thoughts?

a side note first:
I've started reviving the HWDB (HardWare DataBase) idea not long ago
with an Ubuntu friend.
The main idea is to have a central HWDB (either one per distro, or a
real central one), pulling the compatibility data from the upstream
projects (ie NUT drivers.list for NUT, my underway work lirc.hwdb for
LIRC, LinuxPrinting.org data, ...).
And the best would be to have a generic format that fits every
projects needs, and allows to make generic submission forms that would
be relayed to the upstream projects.
I'm thinking about submitting some standardization spec to FreeDesktop
or alike, but still miss time to complete this. If somebody is
interested in, I'd be more than happy to assist him and free a bit
more my brain ;-)

About your proposition, I would so see something more complete, including:
- support level (not tested, not working, working (possibly adding
reverse engineered or alike tags)
- specific port info (USB IDs, ethernet port/protocol, ...)
- Charles proposition of key-value pairs seems a good generic way
- we should be able to generate the various file from this (html,
hotplug, udev, hal)

Other notes:
- the script generating the current html lists isn't in the
repository. Russell sent it to me apart, not so long ago. It's binary
using parseconf. If someone is interested in, I've put it there:
http://opensource.mgeups.com/beta/tools/
- The work done by Jonathan last year lies in the HAL branch.
The compat data are embedded in the drivers (I don't much like this,
but the base idea was to eliminate compat. info redundancy, and I've
not find better).
The tool used to generate the various lists (hotplug, udev, hal, html)
is in utils/print-ups-list.c
- Ross' list was too heavy to manage, though his effort was great to do so!

I might have missed many details, but it's part of my "long run ideas
that never got completed enough"

Arnaud
-- 
Linux / Unix Expert - MGE UPS SYSTEMS - R&D Dpt
Network UPS Tools (NUT) Project Leader - http://www.networkupstools.org/
Debian Developer - http://people.debian.org/~aquette/
OpenSource Developer - http://arnaud.quette.free.fr/