+
+>>>> Ping :) Hi. [[Joey]], would you consider this patch for the next
+>>>> ikiwiki release? -- [[Jon]]
+
+>>> For this to work with websetup and --dumpsetup, it needs to define the
+>>> `meta_*` settings in the getsetup function.
+>>>>
+>>>> I think this will be problematic with the current implementation of this
+>>>> patch. The datatype here is an array of hash references, with each hash
+>>>> having a variable (and arbitrary) number of key/value pairs. I can't
+>>>> think of an intuitive way of implementing a way of editing such a
+>>>> datatype in the web interface, let alone registering the option in
+>>>> getsetup.
+>>>>
+>>>> Perhaps a limited set of defined meta values could be exposed via
+>>>> websetup (the obvious ones: author, copyright, license, etc.) -- [[Jon]]
+>>>
+>>> I also have some concerns about both these patches, since both throw
+>>> a lot of redundant data at meta, which then stores it in a very redundant
+>>> way. Specifically, meta populates a per-page `%metaheaders` hash
+>>> as well as storing per-page metadata in `%pagestate`. So, if you have
+>>> a wiki with 10 thousand pages, and you add a 1k site-wide license text,
+>>> that will bloat the memory usage of ikiwiki by in excess of 2
+>>> megabytes. It will also cause ikiwiki to write a similar amount more data
+>>> to its state file which has to be loaded back in each
+>>> run.
+>>>
+>>> Seems that this could be managed much more efficiently by having
+>>> meta special-case the site-wide settings, not store them in these
+>>> per-page data structures, and just make them be used if no per-page
+>>> metadata of the given type is present. --[[Joey]]
+>>>>
+>>>> that should be easy enough to do. I will work on a patch. -- [[Jon]]
+>>>>> Hi — I've written a new patch which I hope addresses the concerns raised
+>>>>> with the previous ones. The new approach is to hard-code in `scan()`
+>>>>> which of the meta types are supported in the setup file. If one is
+>>>>> defined, then `scan()` calls `preprocess()`, as [[smcv]] suggested,
+>>>>> rather than stuffing redundant data into ikiwiki's data structures.
+>>>>>
+>>>>> Two types supported in the setup file have optional arguments: `author`
+>>>>> and `title`. These are supported by having special-cased setup keys
+>>>>> `meta_author_sortas` and `meta_title_sortas`. Future expansion of the
+>>>>> number of supported types, or addition of arguments to existing ones,
+>>>>> can similarly be special-cased.
+>>>>>
+>>>>> The setup data structure is no longer complicated with an
+>>>>> array-of-hashes, which means this is suitable for exposing via websetup.
+>>>>> `getsetup()` has been adjusted accordingly.
+>>>>>
+>>>>> The patch can be found at the git branch described above.
+>>>>> — [[Jon]]
+
+>>>>>> I wish I could take pity on you and just merge this, but
+>>>>>> AFAICS it still suffers from the memory bloat described above.
+>>>>>> Specifically, when `scan` calls `preprocess`, it
+>>>>>> stores the metadata in `%pagestate` etc. --[[Joey]]
+
+>>>>>>> No pity required — but whoops, yes, that was a bit of a mistake
+>>>>>>> ☺ I guess I'll have to split the current `preprocess` in half.
+>>>>>>> — [[Jon]]
+
+>>>>>>>> I've been taking another look at this today, as I'm very keen to
+>>>>>>>> close various open loops of mine in IkiWiki to move on and do some
+>>>>>>>> other stuff. However, I'm not actually *using* this at the moment,
+>>>>>>>> so whilst I think it's a good idea, I can't really motivate myself
+>>>>>>>> to fix it anymore. I guess for now, this should just rot. — [[Jon]]