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Date:      Fri, 18 Jun 2004 02:33:19 -0400
From:      Ken Smith <kensmith@cse.Buffalo.EDU>
To:        Mike Silbersack <silby@silby.com>
Cc:        Max Khon <fjoe@samodelkin.net>
Subject:   Re: cvs commit: src/sys/sys mbuf.h src/sys/kern uipc_mbuf.c uipc_syscalls.c src/usr.bin/netstat mbuf.c src/lib/libc/sys sendfile.2
Message-ID:  <20040618063319.GB17749@electra.cse.Buffalo.EDU>
In-Reply-To: <7071.208.178.23.220.1087509793.squirrel@208.178.23.220>
References:  <200406170008.i5H08NDt085108@repoman.freebsd.org> <20040617173854.GJ61448@elvis.mu.org> <20040617182031.GA8170@samodelkin.net> <20040617184518.GB831@electra.cse.Buffalo.EDU> <20040617204813.GA10670@samodelkin.net> <20040617214827.GB6029@electra.cse.Buffalo.EDU> <7071.208.178.23.220.1087509793.squirrel@208.178.23.220>

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On Thu, Jun 17, 2004 at 06:03:13PM -0400, Mike Silbersack wrote:

> I understand the script breakage argument, but I don't think it's
> particularly potent.  Imagine this:  We have ls, but it doesn't list file
> sizes, and there was no previous tool to list file sizes.  Someone comes
> along and adds file size display to ls.  However, due to objections about
> scripts breaking, this is backed up, and a seperate option , "ls -f" is
> added, which lists file sizes.  This is the situation we're in here -
> there was NO previous way to see sfbuf statistics; we're adding new _and_
> relevant data to "netstat -m".

This is where we disagree and I don't think either of us will change
our minds.  My take on it is that this breaks an API in a -stable
branch and is adding new functionality so it *should* be added as
a new flag.  Using a slight variant on your ls example, your approach
is like adding the ability to find out what the inode number is by
adding a new column to the output of "ls -l".  But they didn't do
that, they added the -i flag.  If they had added it to the output
of the -l flag anyone parsing the "ls -l" output in a script would
need to accomodate the extra field.  IMHO that's acceptable in
-current, not -stable and IMHO the new information should go in
as a new flag.

Your opinion is obviously different, doesn't look like that will
change.

-- 
						Ken Smith
- From there to here, from here to      |       kensmith@cse.buffalo.edu
  there, funny things are everywhere.   |
                      - Theodore Geisel |



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