Re: [gentoo-user] A question about emerge --info

["Andrey Vul" <andrey.vul@gmail.com>]

Found the code, and it's actually part of python (as of 2.4).
Gentoo sets aliased to 1 when printing the system uname.
/usr/lib/python2.{4,5,6}/platform.py:

def _platform(*args):

    """ Helper to format the platform string in a filename
        compatible format e.g. "system-version-machine".
    """
    # Format the platform string
    platform = string.join(
        map(string.strip,
            filter(len,args)),
        '-')

    # Cleanup some possible filename obstacles...
    replace = string.replace
    platform = replace(platform,' ','_')
    platform = replace(platform,'/','-')
    platform = replace(platform,'\\','-')
    platform = replace(platform,':','-')
    platform = replace(platform,';','-')
    platform = replace(platform,'"','-')
    platform = replace(platform,'(','-')
    platform = replace(platform,')','-')

    # No need to report 'unknown' information...
    platform = replace(platform,'unknown','')

    # Fold '--'s and remove trailing '-'
    while 1:
        cleaned = replace(platform,'--','-')
        if cleaned == platform:
            break
        platform = cleaned
    while platform[-1] == '-':
        platform = platform[:-1]

    return platform

def platform(aliased=0, terse=0):

    """ Returns a single string identifying the underlying platform
        with as much useful information as possible (but no more :).

        The output is intended to be human readable rather than
        machine parseable. It may look different on different
        platforms and this is intended.

        If "aliased" is true, the function will use aliases for
        various platforms that report system names which differ from
        their common names, e.g. SunOS will be reported as
        Solaris. The system_alias() function is used to implement
        this.

        Setting terse to true causes the function to return only the
        absolute minimum information needed to identify the platform.

    """
    result = _platform_cache.get((aliased, terse), None)
    if result is not None:
        return result

    # Get uname information and then apply platform specific cosmetics
    # to it...
    system,node,release,version,machine,processor = uname()
    if machine == processor:
        processor = ''
    if aliased:
        system,release,version = system_alias(system,release,version)

    if system == 'Windows':
        # MS platforms
        rel,vers,csd,ptype = win32_ver(version)
        if terse:
            platform = _platform(system,release)
        else:
            platform = _platform(system,release,version,csd)

    elif system in ('Linux',):
        # Linux based systems
        distname,distversion,distid = dist('')
        if distname and not terse:
            platform = _platform(system,release,machine,processor,
                                 'with',
                                 distname,distversion,distid)
        else:
            # If the distribution name is unknown check for libc vs. glibc
            libcname,libcversion = libc_ver(sys.executable)
            platform = _platform(system,release,machine,processor,
                                 'with',
                                 libcname+libcversion)
    elif system == 'Java':
        # Java platforms
        r,v,vminfo,(os_name,os_version,os_arch) = java_ver()
        if terse:
            platform = _platform(system,release,version)
        else:
            platform = _platform(system,release,version,
                                 'on',
                                 os_name,os_version,os_arch)

    elif system == 'MacOS':
        # MacOS platforms
        if terse:
            platform = _platform(system,release)
        else:
            platform = _platform(system,release,machine)

    else:
        # Generic handler
        if terse:
            platform = _platform(system,release)
        else:
            bits,linkage = architecture(sys.executable)
            platform = _platform(system,release,machine,processor,bits,linkage)

    _platform_cache[(aliased, terse)] = platform
    return platform


Proof: run /usr/lib/python2.{4,5,6}/platform.py
aliased and terse have no effect wrt output (kernel_version-with-libc_version)
-- 
Andrey Vul

A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
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