extended version information from Mapserver

[Daniel Morissette]

I like the idea too and I think that it would be nice if the output was 
in an easy to parse format so that the caller code can extract 
information programatically and tell if option A, or GDAL format X is 
available. Do I dare to say "perhaps XML"? Maybe msGetVersionDetailed() 
could take a format argument that would allow the caller to choose 
between plain text and XML output?

Daniel

Frank Warmerdam wrote:
> 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,
>