extended version information from Mapserver

[Frank Warmerdam]

Brent Fraser wrote:
> Frank,
> 
>   One of the posts to the Mapserver Users list last nite involved a question
> about how to get ECW files working with Mapserver.  It would be nice to have
> a way to check the capabilities of the GDAL (and other options?) linked to
> MapServer.  Last month I had a similar need and wrote a function (for v4.8)
> to include in maperror.c:
...
> This would prevent the "details" from being written to every web page as the
> "-v" results are now.
> 
> So now the questions:
> 1. Could you check the code in (if you think it's reasonable)?  I'll file a
> bug report to track the change.

Brent,

Do file a bug, and assign it to me.   I wouldn't mind adding such a feature.

> 2. Are there any immediate ramifications with respect to the plug-in
> architecture (RFC 8)?

I don't think there are any RFC 8 ramifications.  I was going to suggest
that msGetVersion() ought to report available plugins, but there is really
no way for it to know about them in advance.

However, I do think that msGetVersionDetailed() ought to be reporting a
variety of other information.  Possibly:

  o Version information for some of the client libraries like GDAL, OGR,
    GEOS, GD, PROJ, FreeType, .
  o The list of OGR formats available (in a similar fashion to GDAL formats).

I would also like to see a mechanism (some special keyword like there is for
the short version info) to cause this to be embedded in a web page.  This
would really just be used for debugging of course, not regular use.  But it
might help isolate situations where differences in the web environment result
in the wrong GDAL being used, or plugins not being found.  etc.

Best regards,

-- 
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I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | Geospatial Programmer for Rent