1
7
Fork
You've already forked hell
1

"reflex" can point to wrong tool #2

Closed
opened 2026年02月03日 12:08:20 +01:00 by nikonthethird · 2 comments
Contributor
Copy link

Currently, in the makefile, the presence of the "reflex" tool is checked.

However, at least in Ubuntu there exists another tool called reflex, which is not a lexer but a file watcher. I accidentally installed it using "apt install reflex" (thinking this would install your preferred lexer) and got strange error messages about "-o" not being recognized.

It would be nice if the makefile could contain another check if the LEX argument was provided explicitly to make and use this if the user wants.

So if I run "make LEX=/my/path/to/flex" this should be used even when the file watcher tool called reflex is installed on the system.

Currently, in the makefile, the presence of the "reflex" tool is [checked](https://codeberg.org/shrub900/hell/src/commit/03aaf18e9bb47ef515d7607e6b52e7989acc74e1/Makefile#L89). However, at least in Ubuntu there exists [another tool called reflex](https://packages.ubuntu.com/noble/reflex), which is not a lexer but a file watcher. I accidentally installed it using "apt install reflex" (thinking this would install your preferred lexer) and got strange error messages about "-o" not being recognized. It would be nice if the makefile could contain another check if the LEX argument was provided explicitly to make and use this if the user wants. So if I run "make LEX=/my/path/to/flex" this should be used even when the file watcher tool called reflex is installed on the system.

yes, reflex is not in any big distro package managers as far as i am aware. however, it is the best flex fork available, the big one has lots of non-POSIX extensions. reflex is available at https://invisible-island.net/reflex/reflex.html, i recommend it. thank you for raising this, much appreciated

yes, reflex is not in any big distro package managers as far as i am aware. however, it is the best flex fork available, the big one has lots of non-POSIX extensions. reflex is available at https://invisible-island.net/reflex/reflex.html, i recommend it. thank you for raising this, much appreciated
Author
Contributor
Copy link

Thanks, I will check out this flex version.

Thanks, I will check out this flex version.
Sign in to join this conversation.
No Branch/Tag specified
Labels
Clear labels
No items
No labels
Milestone
Clear milestone
No items
No milestone
Projects
Clear projects
No items
No project
Assignees
Clear assignees
No assignees
2 participants
Notifications
Due date
The due date is invalid or out of range. Please use the format "yyyy-mm-dd".

No due date set.

Dependencies

No dependencies set.

Reference
shrub900/hell#2
Reference in a new issue
shrub900/hell
No description provided.
Delete branch "%!s()"

Deleting a branch is permanent. Although the deleted branch may continue to exist for a short time before it actually gets removed, it CANNOT be undone in most cases. Continue?