Bug 1253 – Clean up the launcher script for *nix

Bug 1253 - Clean up the launcher script for *nix


Summary:	Clean up the launcher script for *nix

Status:	RESOLVED INVALID

Product:	ImageJ
Classification:	Unclassified
Component:	Launcher
Version:	unspecified
Hardware:	PC Linux

Importance:	P5 enhancement
Assigned To:	ipatrol6010

URL:

Depends on:
Blocks:

Reported:	2016-03-28 21:59 CDT by ipatrol6010
Modified:	2016-04-26 17:13 CDT
CC List:	1 user (show)

See Also:

Description ipatrol6010 2016-03-28 21:59:20 CDT

I've discovered in attempting to debug ImageJ just how contorted the launcher script is for the platform. It's fragile, hard-to-read, cluttered, highly dependent on a particular system configuration, and relies on a menagerie of external processes to work.

I think this is probably a good example of what *not* to use a shell script for. I'm thinking of rewriting it in Python, since it's practically standard on *nix platforms, and can do all of this a lot more intelligently.

I'm going to go ahead on that if there are no objections.

Comment 1 Curtis Rueden 2016-03-28 22:18:09 CDT

I assume you are referring to:
https://github.com/imagej/imagej/blob/master/bin/ImageJ.sh
?

This sort of work is best discussed as a GitHub issue and/or pull request, especially since this issue tracker is on the road to retirement.

Anyway, a Python or Perl script would be welcome -- I agree that both are "practically standard on *nix". I wouldn't necessarily even worry about supporting all of those options.

Regarding the native launcher, we are planning to switch to JavaFX deployment later this year. But we will certainly need to retain a non-native launcher in some scripting language for debugging purposes.

Comment 2 ipatrol6010 2016-03-28 23:39:39 CDT

(In reply to Curtis Rueden from comment #1)
I'm actually not sure what I'm looking at. The script I found was from the Debian/Ubuntu package for imagej.

Am I even looking at the right bugtracker?

Comment 3 ipatrol6010 2016-03-29 00:01:39 CDT

For reference, here is the script in question:
http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-branches/ubuntu/wily/imagej/wily/view/head:/debian/imagej.sh

Comment 4 Curtis Rueden 2016-04-26 17:13:57 CDT

Thanks for the clarification, and sorry for the delay in reply.

So, the main ImageJ teams have no control over that script. It was written by a third party. If you want to change it, you would have to contact the maintainer(s) of the Debian ImageJ package and work with them.

Some day it would be awesome for the ImageJ2 project to produce Debian-compatible artifacts. But we do not have the bandwidth for it alone right now; see:

http://imagej.net/Debian