Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1999 12:41:10 -0500 (EST) From: Garrett Wollman <wollman@khavrinen.lcs.mit.edu> To: Robert Nordier <rnordier@nordier.com> Cc: freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: "Argument by Authority" Message-ID: <199901281741.MAA17874@khavrinen.lcs.mit.edu> In-Reply-To: <199901280348.FAA29674@ceia.nordier.com> References: <19990128130131.J4819@freebie.lemis.com> <199901280348.FAA29674@ceia.nordier.com>
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<<On Thu, 28 Jan 1999 05:48:31 +0200 (SAT), Robert Nordier <rnordier@nordier.com> said: > | COMPATIBILITY > | The rm utility differs from historical implementations in that > | the -f option only masks attempts to remove non-existent > | files instead of masking a large variety of errors. I went down to our reading room and examined 1003.2. It says quite clearly that `-f' has ONLY the following two effects: 1) Suppress warnings for non-existent files specified on the command line. 2) Suppress interaction when removing an unwritable file even when standard input is connected to a terminal. It specifically requires that diagnostics be generated for any errors resulting from unlink() or rmdir(). (The rationale dismisses the historic behavior by describing it as ``hardly doing a service to either shell programmers or interactive users''.) The synopsis given is: rm [-firR] file ... ...which indicates that at least one `file' argument is required. It also indicates that `-f' and `-i' are not mutually exclusive. Furthermore, 1003.2 prohibits our `-d' flag; `rm' is always required to call rmdir() when a directory is specifed on the command line. -GAWollman -- Garrett A. Wollman | O Siem / We are all family / O Siem / We're all the same wollman@lcs.mit.edu | O Siem / The fires of freedom Opinions not those of| Dance in the burning flame MIT, LCS, CRS, or NSA| - Susan Aglukark and Chad Irschick To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message
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