Change order of execution of commands when using a shortcut about dosbox-staging HOT 5 OPEN

Ok, my thoughts:

Current behaviour

I've added echo global.conf to the autoexec section of the primary conf, then a.conf contains echo "a.conf", and b.conf has echo "b.conf". The local dosbox.conf contains echo "dosbox.conf".

dosbox -c 'echo "c1"' --conf a.conf -c 'echo "c2"' --conf b.conf -c 'echo "c3"'

So the command execution order is:

• -c args in order as specified
• [autoexec] of the global config
• [autoexec] of the local dosbox.conf config
• [autoexec] of the --conf args in order as specified

Proposed behaviour

Given the same command:

dosbox -c 'echo "c1"' --conf a.conf -c 'echo "c2"' --conf b.conf -c 'echo "c3"'

We could execute things in the order they appear in the command line, so:

• [autoexec] of the global config
• [autoexec] of the local dosbox.conf config
• -c 'echo "c1"'
• --conf a.conf
• -c 'echo "c2"'
• --conf b.conf
• -c 'echo "c3"'

I find executing anything before the global and local configs very questionable, so ideally I'd always execute the global config first followed by the local config.

Not sure what this would break though... Probably there will be at least one guy who's super upset about this (like always 😄), but does it matter? Unless a large number of people depend on running stuff before the global & local configs, I think this is a better, more logical and more flexible solution.

from dosbox-staging.

Seem reasonable. Not too sure if this would cause regressions we'd need to worry about. Probably not.

from dosbox-staging.

If I understand this change correctly, then I would personally find it objectionable. I am currently passing DOS environment variables to be fed into if %VAR%=1 gotos within the autoexec script. The resulting gotos can achieve much more functionality than just explicitly specifing an EXE to run. If the commands were set after the script, then I think I would lose this functionality?

E.g. in the form: "Eradicator -- Multiplayer (Host)" dosbox -conf dosbox-ERAD.conf -c set RUNSERVER=1 --set ipx=true

from dosbox-staging.

Well, I think it's more sensible to run any commands specified in the command line after all configs have been loaded. It's just common sense.

Otherwise, there would be no end to the special requests. E.g., you want the command to be executed before loading any configs @QmwJlHuSg9pa. But what if you specify two or more config files, then want to execute some commands in the middle somewhere? 😄

I'm leaning towards executing commands after all configs have been loaded. If someone wants to parametrise the config files like you @QmwJlHuSg9pa, you can always write it programmatically (or manually), then specify multiple -conf args which will be executed in order. E.g.:

dosbox --conf one-var-setup.conf --conf one.conf --conf three.conf

from dosbox-staging.

Another option, we literally run things in order. So the order of -c and --conf params is respected. Probably that's the best solution, but can be fiddly to implement. Or maybe not 🤷🏻 😆

from dosbox-staging.