[GRASS-dev] [bug #4960] (grass) gis.m has menu entries for nonexisting modules

[Glynn Clements]

Michael Barton wrote:

> > gis.m menus contain menu entries for modules which are missing for some
> > reason.
> > 
> > i.e. if I compile grass without C++, I don't have r.terraflow, but I sill
> > will have menu entry for it.
> > 
> > Couldn't there be something like script which runs after all module
> > compilation (before make install?) and masks unavailable module entries?
> > Logic like "if (! `ls dist.i686-pc-linux-gnu/bin | grep
> > menu.tcl.module["foo"]`) then disable(comment out)". As I'm not scripting
> > guru, I can't write such script.
> 
> This should be a wish, not a bug.

Actually, I'm not sure that it should even be a wish.

Leaving the menu entry in place lets the user know that certain
functionality is "available", even if they have to get a newer version
or compile GRASS themselves. If the menu entry is simply omitted, they
won't even consider that option.

Also, testing whether an executable is present isn't the same thing as
testing whether or not it can actually be run. It's arguably better to
treat all such problems in a similar manner (attempt to run the module
and show any specific errors to the user) than to treat specially the
case where the executable is absent.

-- 
Glynn Clements <glynn at gclements.plus.com>