rcorder document BEFORE and plural REQUIRES:, PROVIDES:, and KEYWORDS:

I was going to document BEFORE in rcorder.8 but looking at
code I also saw 
support for plural PROVIDES:, REQUIRES:, and KEYWORDS:.

What was or is the plan for those plural words?

>From looking at source, they appear to be identical to
the singular 
versions? Are they just historical? I don't see any use of
them by NetBSD 
or various branches of FreeBSD.

As for documenting BEFORE ... I read "This allows
scripts to be removed 
without editing the barrier scripts."

The BEFORE condition can be used to fine-tune the ordering.



  Jeremy C. Reed

   I was going to document BEFORE in rcorder.8 but looking
at code I also saw 
   support for plural PROVIDES:, REQUIRES:, and KEYWORDS:.
   
   What was or is the plan for those plural words?
   
   >From looking at source, they appear to be identical
to the singular 
   versions? Are they just historical? I don't see any use
of them by NetBSD 
   or various branches of FreeBSD.

mostly they are there to catch folks who accidentally use
the
plural forms.  i added them before importing rcorder into
netbsd src.  documenting them would be ok.
   
   As for documenting BEFORE ... I read "This allows
scripts to be removed 
   without editing the barrier scripts."
   
   The BEFORE condition can be used to fine-tune the
ordering.

BEFORE came much later in rcorder than the bulk of it, as
we
realised that having a way to define dependancy paths both
ways was useful.  you should feel free to expand the text.


.mrg.

"Jeremy C. Reed" <reedreedmedia.net> writes:
> I was going to document BEFORE in rcorder.8 but looking
at code I also saw 
> support for plural PROVIDES:, REQUIRES:, and
KEYWORDS:.
>
> What was or is the plan for those plural words?
>
>>From looking at source, they appear to be identical
to the singular 
> versions? Are they just historical? I don't see any use
of them by NetBSD 
> or various branches of FreeBSD.

They are there to allow alternate spellings.

> As for documenting BEFORE ... I read "This allows
scripts to be removed 
> without editing the barrier scripts."
>
> The BEFORE condition can be used to fine-tune the
ordering.

I don't quite get that description...

-- 
Perry E. Metzger		perrypiermont.com

> [...] plural PROVIDES:, REQUIRES:, and KEYWORDS:.

> What was or is the plan for those plural words?

KEYWORDS, perhaps, but neither PROVIDES nor REQUIRES is a
plural.
Neither PROVIDE nor REQUIRE is a noun; they're verbs, and
when a
regular verb like PROVIDE or REQUIRE appears with a trailing
S like
that, it has to be the third person _singular_.  The third
plural, the
first singular or plural, and the second plural are all
lacking the S.
("They provide", "I provide", "we
provide", "you provide" - only "it
provides".)  (Second singular doesn't exist much in
modern English; to
the extent that it does, it uses a distinctive inflection
(usually
-ETH), not -S.)  That's all in the present tense.  Past and
participles
don't use -S at all, not for regular verbs.)

</grammarian>

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