The alignment of the "[ OK ]" and "[FAILED]" status marks to the right
side of the terminal makes it difficult to link them with the messages
on the left if your console is wide.
I considered the options:
1. Align them to the 80th column regardless of the console width.
Disadvantage - either:
- truncating messages needlessly, not using available space; or
- If the message is long, write the mark over it. => ugly
2. Write them to the 80th column for short messages,
and further to the right for longer ones.
Disadvantage:
- jagged look
3. Write the marks on the left, before the message.
Disadvantage:
- Breaks tradition from RHL.
Advantages:
+ slightly simpler code
+ Will annoy holy-traditionalists.
I chose option 3.
BTW, Debian now uses similar marks on the left with its makefile-style
boot.
Special values of the "status" argument to status_vprintf are:
NULL - no status mark, no message indentation
"" - no status mark, message indented as if the mark was there