Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Sun, 28 Mar 2004 18:08:36 +1000
From:      Stephen McKay <smckay@internode.on.net>
To:        arch@freebsd.org
Cc:        Albert Cahalan <albert@users.sourceforge.net>
Subject:   Re: posix ps (was Re: Adding `pgrep' and `pkill' to /usr/bin) 
Message-ID:  <200403280808.i2S88aJ7016011@dungeon.home>
In-Reply-To: <p06020494bc8a5738af2f@[128.113.24.47]> from Garance A Drosihn at "Sat, 27 Mar 2004 00:13:45 %2B0000"
References:  <p0602046abc879c5fe2f9@[128.113.24.47]> <20040325070120.GA67497@VARK.homeunix.com> <1a9c01c41359$b3da45e0$7890a8c0@dyndns.org> <p06020494bc8a5738af2f@[128.113.24.47]>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Saturday, 27th March 2004, Garance A Drosihn wrote:

>>$ PERSONALITY=freebsd ps -?
>
>Secondly, I personally am not fond of commands which COMPLETELY
>change their behavior based on environment variables.  Different
>options, different formats, different rules.

Unifying ps on all Unices (including FreeBSD) is an excellent idea, and
I fully support this.

Using an environment variable (no matter what name is used) to switch
between radically different personalities is an appalling idea.  No script
can depend on the output of ps thereafter.

If multiple personalities is a desirable trait (and it's not clear that it
is) then command line switches and aliases are the correct mechanisms to
use.

Stephen.



Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?200403280808.i2S88aJ7016011>