Date: Fri, 2 Jun 2006 02:50:47 +1000 (EST) From: Bruce Evans <bde@zeta.org.au> To: John Baldwin <jhb@freebsd.org> Cc: Maxim Konovalov <maxim@freebsd.org>, Alexey Dokuchaev <danfe@freebsd.org>, src-committers@freebsd.org, cvs-src@freebsd.org, cvs-all@freebsd.org, Greg 'groggy' Lehey <grog@freebsd.org>, Ceri Davies <ceri@submonkey.net> Subject: Re: cvs commit: src/sys/ufs/ufs ufs_vnops.c Message-ID: <20060602023102.J34761@delplex.bde.org> In-Reply-To: <200606010858.39417.jhb@freebsd.org> References: <200605311315.k4VDFUhD093628@repoman.freebsd.org> <20060601094950.GU21998@submonkey.net> <20060601100126.GA43737@FreeBSD.org> <200606010858.39417.jhb@freebsd.org>
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On Thu, 1 Jun 2006, John Baldwin wrote: > On Thursday 01 June 2006 06:01, Alexey Dokuchaev wrote: >> On Thu, Jun 01, 2006 at 10:49:50AM +0100, Ceri Davies wrote: >>> @@ -69,6 +69,10 @@ >>> the file must be open for writing. >>> .Sh RETURN VALUES >>> .Rv -std >>> +If the file to be modified is not a directory or >>> +a regular file, the >>> +.Fn truncate >>> +call will return the value 0. >> >> Doesn't "value of 0" sound better? > > Not to me, though I can't explain why. I think the phrase "X will return the > value Y" is common in man pages though. "will return" sounds strange to be. Normal is "Upon successful completion, the value 0 is returned...". This is part of what ".Rv -std" expands to. POSIX says "Upon successful completion, ftruncate( ) shall return 0...". The POSIX wording is better. "the value 0" says nothing more than "0", and "returns" is clearer than "is returned". Saying "the value 0" is apparently a hack to give the clause a subject (or is it an object? -- I think the value is the object convoluted to a subject or vice versa). FreeBSD has a deshallify.sh script to adjust the POSIX wording. It does s/shall return/returns/. Bruce
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