extended version information from Mapserver

[Brent Fraser]

>
> Do file a bug, and assign it to me.   I wouldn't mind adding such a
feature.
Done.  And many thanks.

> 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.

Yikes!  Well as long as there will be some error messages regarding missing
components...

> 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).

Absolutely!

> 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.

Excellent idea.  And I'd like to see DEBUG output sent to the web page too
(and more debug write statements inserted into mapserver and GDAL).  I still
remember stepping thru the code to find out GDAL couldn't find ecw_cs.dat.

Thanks again,
Brent