Re: [RFC PATCH 3/3] FAQ: sync newuser-install

[Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, Sep 2, 2022 at 8:47 AM Vincent Lefevre <vincent@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> On 2022-09-02 08:28:01 -0500, Felipe Contreras wrote:
> > On Fri, Sep 2, 2022 at 7:50 AM Vincent Lefevre <vincent@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > >
> > > On 2022-09-02 09:18:57 +0000, Daniel Shahaf wrote:
> > > > Mikael Magnusson wrote on Fri, Sep 02, 2022 at 05:46:12 +0200:
> > > > > On 9/2/22, Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > > > > It is unreasonable to force absolutely every new user to set these
> > > > > > options just to get started.
> > > > >
> > > > > "Paste these lines in .zshrc to enable history" is not more
> > > > > complicated with 3 lines than 1, however much you want to argue that
> > > > > it is. They still need to find the line(s) to copy in the first place
> > > > > (or god forbid, read the documentation).
> > > >
> > > > Copy-pasting three lines is as easy as one, sure.  /Understanding/ them,
> > > > however, is a different kettle of fish.  If one has set three special
> > > > variables, then one needs to read three zshparam(1) entries rather than
> > > > one.
> > >
> > > Isn't $SAVEHIST equal to $HISTSIZE in most configurations?
> > >
> > > In such a case, couldn't a negative value for $SAVEHIST mean that
> > > it should be regarded as SAVEHIST=$HISTSIZE (dynamically)?
> > >
> > > Then I think that -1 could be the default value for SAVEHIST.
> > > So only HISTFILE and HISTSIZE would be needed in the .zshrc,
> > > and they are self-explanatory for the end user.
> >
> > This is precisely what I proposed in the previous patch:
> >
> > https://www.zsh.org/mla/workers/2022/msg00830.html
>
> Perhaps, but then, I think that your patch description
> "Make SAVEHIST default to HISTSIZE" is wrong, or at least
> the patch lacks a multiline description. Moreover, an update
> of the man pages would be necessary.

It wasn't a "true" patch, it was a Request for Comments patch. After
the comments it's clear doing this at this point creates too much
noise. That's why I decided to focus on increasing the default of
HISTFILE first.

I might send a true patch for this after that, but first things first.

--
Felipe Contreras