[ts-gen] Controlling shim parameters (key-value pairs)

[R P Herrold]

On Mon, 17 Aug 2009, Ken Feng wrote:

> I have two questions about controlling shim parameters.
>
> 1. I know about .shimrc - is there a way to tell shim to use a
> different .shimrc upon start-up on the command line?

Presently there is not a mechanism internal to the shim for 
this.  We have some thoughts on the matter as part of and 
extension of the testing scripts. Those extensions are not 
implemented yet, as we have been focussed on memory matters 
recently, and have some other areas in mind to cover as well.

One thing we are aware of is the need to stop adding lower 
priority features, and make sure the documentation and the 
testing harnesses we ship are complete and would permit a 
person approaching the shim has sufficient resources to be 
able to understand it without the need for mailing list help.

Generating a new file (containing say custom .shimrc values, 
as from a template) is just not all that hard, and the 
decisions on what to internalize vs. what to leave 'outside' 
is one we have faced many times, and use cases can be made on 
either side of many of the ways we have come out.

> 2. Is there a way to override a specific parameter on shim startup?
> For example, I want to pick a ShimText based on yyyymmdd upon startup
> from a Ruby file.

hmmm -- I rename the ShimText file at the end of a run as 
part of the wrapping script that kicked off a given run of the 
shim.  that said, these files are largely transient of nature, 
and I regularly end up tossing them out unread.

-- Russ herrold