Comment # 23 on bug 1051465 from Franck Bui

(In reply to Thomas Blume from comment #22)
> Question is where we go from here. Should we add a suse-only patch or move
> the funbctionality to an external script/binary?
> Franck, any thoughts?

Well I would avoid the use of an external script if possible just for doing
string mangling.

Couldn't we try to do the string mangling in the rule file directly instead,
something like that instead ?

> IMPORT{program}="/bin/sh -c 'ID_SERIAL=$env{ID_SERIAL}; echo ID_SERIAL_TRUNCATED=${ID_SERIAL:0:16}'

The shell expression looks simple enough to be embedded in the rule.