From owner-freebsd-stable Thu Nov 18 4:55:43 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from smtp2.vnet.net (smtp2.vnet.net [166.82.1.32]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 970F9153C9 for ; Thu, 18 Nov 1999 04:55:36 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from rivers@dignus.com) Received: from dignus.com (ponds.vnet.net [166.82.177.48]) by smtp2.vnet.net (8.9.1a/8.9.1) with ESMTP id HAA26632; Thu, 18 Nov 1999 07:55:32 -0500 (EST) Received: from lakes.dignus.com (lakes.dignus.com [10.0.0.3]) by dignus.com (8.9.2/8.8.5) with ESMTP id HAA19174; Thu, 18 Nov 1999 07:55:31 -0500 (EST) Received: (from rivers@localhost) by lakes.dignus.com (8.9.3/8.6.9) id HAA06217; Thu, 18 Nov 1999 07:55:31 -0500 (EST) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1999 07:55:31 -0500 (EST) From: Thomas David Rivers Message-Id: <199911181255.HAA06217@lakes.dignus.com> To: sheldonh@uunet.co.za, voland@plab.ku.dk Subject: Re: pwd_mkdb max uid warning. Cc: freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG In-Reply-To: <85ogcs0y03.fsf@dialup90.apex.dp.ua> Sender: owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > > Hi Sheldon! > > On 18 Nov 99 at 14:37, "Sheldon" (Sheldon Hearn) wrote: > > >> But merely for satisfying my curiosity, what are you gonna do with vipw > >> and pw? Being called implicitly pwd_mkdb will warn you anyway. > > Sheldon> That was one of the reasons I wanted an envorinment variable, but > Sheldon> I was warned off that idea by bde. > > Why? What reasons make this solution unacceptable? > -- > /Voland Vadim Belman > E-mail: voland@plab.ku.dk Just my $0.02 - environment variables don't make a good programming or user interface. User X runs the program - it behaves this way. User Y runs the program - it behaves this *other* way (same command line.) User X runs the program another day - it behaves yet *another* way. Support group gets a call and has to spend time figuring out what environment variables are meaningful to the program and what there values were (the user may not even be aware of them, or set/unset them.) It's much better to be explicit about things like this. Just my opinion - - Dave Rivers - To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message