Re: [Monotone-devel] Re: Automate stdio chunk size

[Thomas Keller]

> We can't use an in-stream EOF token, because the stream should be
> binary-safe. So this means prefixing each data chunk with the size of
> that chunk. A chunk is output when it reaches the maximum size (because
> having a known maximum size seems convenient), or when the stream is
> flushed (my understanding is that this is the Right Thing to do, plus it
> could be nice if we have commands that take a long time to finish).

Well, the EOF token wouldn't really have to be '\0', just something a 
parser could distinguish from the normal output flow. F.e. in emails the 
header is separated from the body by double newlines \n\n. If basic_io 
would become standard for all output of the automation interface there 
could even be some well-defined end token there, like

...

command_finished "1234..."

where the 1234... part could be the checksum for the complete output 
echoed before that token.

Thomas.