From owner-freebsd-hackers Sun Jul 12 06:06:06 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id GAA23505 for freebsd-hackers-outgoing; Sun, 12 Jul 1998 06:06:06 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from freefall.freebsd.org (freefall.FreeBSD.ORG [204.216.27.21]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id GAA23464 for ; Sun, 12 Jul 1998 06:06:03 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from rivers@dignus.com) Received: from elvis.vnet.net (elvis.vnet.net [166.82.1.5]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.5) with ESMTP id GAA25961 for ; Sun, 12 Jul 1998 06:05:45 -0700 (PDT) Received: from dignus.com (ponds.vnet.net [166.82.177.48]) by elvis.vnet.net (8.8.8/8.8.4) with ESMTP id JAA20046; Sun, 12 Jul 1998 09:05:54 -0400 (EDT) Received: from lakes.dignus.com (lakes [10.0.0.3]) by dignus.com (8.8.8/8.8.5) with ESMTP id JAA25836; Sun, 12 Jul 1998 09:43:20 -0400 (EDT) Received: (from rivers@localhost) by lakes.dignus.com (8.8.8/8.6.9) id JAA14646; Sun, 12 Jul 1998 09:10:08 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sun, 12 Jul 1998 09:10:08 -0400 (EDT) From: Thomas David Rivers Message-Id: <199807121310.JAA14646@lakes.dignus.com> To: freebsd-hackers@freefall.cdrom.com, joelh@gnu.org, sastdr@unx.sas.com Subject: Re: Improvemnet of ln(1). In-Reply-To: <199807111926.OAA14413@detlev.UUCP> Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > > I will personally buy a beer (so long as it's not an American beer) > for the first five people who can show me current existance of such a > script. (In other words, a script written during or after this > discussion doesn't count.) That said, I sincerely doubt I'll have to > buy a single beer. > I don't know if this counts - but the source/build management system at SAS would break... technically, it's a program that scans the output. The code doesn't employ reasonable return-codes for some ungodly reasons, and thus, there are 'scraping scripts' that read through several gigs worth out shell/compiler/utility output and "decide" if the build was successful. Changing the behaviour of ln, as you suggest, would likely break all of that 'log scraping' code. [Who knows how many questionable 'ln' commands are embedded within this spaghetti.] Believe me; as I'm the manager of the compiler group; and I am expressly prohibited from changing even the smallest typo in a compiler message; much less adding a new one - for fear of such a calamity. The argument is that a broken 'script scraper' costs several thousands of developers a couple of days while it's repaired... we're talking man-years here of wasted time... I don't buy it myself - but that's the rule I live under. - Dave Rivers - To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message