Date: Tue, 1 May 2001 03:23:15 -0600 (MDT) From: Doug Russell <drussell@saturn-tech.com> To: "Arthur W. Neilson III" <art@pilikia.net> Cc: freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: tail Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0105010313460.78446-100000@beastie.saturn-tech.com> In-Reply-To: <200104300841220210.0C7DBEE8@smtp>
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On Mon, 30 Apr 2001, Arthur W. Neilson III wrote: > This very functionality, being able to cat a directory, saved my butt some years > ago on an unfamiliar sys5r2 box which had crashed and no filesystem but root > would mount. ls wasn't in the path and I remembered I could use cat dirname as > a crude ls in order to navigate. This helped me find fsck in an obscure directory > and repair the hosed filesystems and recover the system. echo * is another handy way to do that sometimes when nothing is available. I, also, have used the ability of most programs to read directories in an emergency situation. I also often use utilities like tail on binaries, etc. Just because your output is directed to a terminal doesn't mean a program shouldn't do what I want it to. I've often though of these little nicities, and it seems to me that a broader approach should be taken. Someone with the time could start a package that could be installed, perhaps at various different levels, that would make things prettier, include extra error messages, perhaps, eliminate (block) some dangerous commands, easy access to help, some menued commands perhaps, etc. etc. You could then put your machine in "user friendly" mode if desired, but those of us who expect Unix to behave like Unix can set it to mode 0. There could be levels in between without the "Are you sure you are really sure you answered the last are you sure question correctly?", but not quite totally bare..... Just a few thoughts I've had burried for some time.... Later...... <Doug> To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message
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