[pca] Feature request, --debug messages to stderr

[Martin Paul]

dpecka wrote:
> 1) stdout << normal output like list of patches & etc
> 2) stderr:
> 	2.1) headers which could be maintained by -H switch
> 	2.2) --debug messages which should be printed on stderr anyway
> 
> but its only my proposal ;) .. 

There's probably no one-size-fits-all solution here, unless introducing 
a heap of new options to direct any "class" of output (like: header, 
list, debug, error, ...) to any target (file/stdout/stderr/syslog). I 
had that in mind once, but I think it's overkill.

> ad.1) i cant see anything useful that in current one are headers printed
> on stdout

When the header goes to stderr just like debug, there's no way to get a 
complete patch report including headers into a file when running with 
"--debug". The headers will be mixed with debug, where they don't belong 
(either).

> ad.2) to your mention about *small *disadvantage: what about to add
> there a switch, which allows to save --debug into file, like
> 
> --debug=$file and if $file not specified, stderr is taken by default ?

In the current setup, you can just use "2>$file" instead (as long as you 
don't use a csh/tcsh), like Alexander says. When headers go to stderr 
(as you propose), it would be a means to separate headers from debug 
output again, but this leads to the generic solution of allowing to 
direct everything to anywhere as mentioned above.

The disadvantage I was talking about is that in the new version I can't 
simply run "pca --debug | more" anymore, as only stdout will be paged, 
but not stderr (debug output). But if that's not a problem for users, 
it's none for me neither.

Martin.