Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2001 14:24:40 -0800 (PST) From: Julian Elischer <julian@elischer.org> To: "Jackie 'business-first' Cook" <jackie@businessman.pl> Cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Motion for removal of xargs(1) from base system Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0112101420200.689-100000@InterJet.elischer.org> In-Reply-To: <20011210221335.ACEB137B405@hub.freebsd.org>
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ummm, what are my scripts that use it going to use instead?
it seems to work fine, and it's pretty much an expected
base utility. Removing it is going to cause quite a bit of confusion.
On Mon, 10 Dec 2001, Jackie 'business-first' Cook wrote:
> There are days when people get tired with the lagacy code in the
> system - when things of the past just have to go. Recently I got sick
> and tired with one of those things. The command is, as you could have
> guessed from the subject, xags(1) aka /usr/bin/xargs. It is buggy and
> cluttered piece of code. Faulty and hard to use command. It's
> idiosyncratic syntax makes people dizzy everytime they use/or just try
> to use it.
>
> Moreover short research I've conducted showed, that excessive use of
> xargs(1) can cause nausea, vomiting and migrene. The very presence of
> xargs(1) in the system, caused in some cases severe brain damage.
> Therefore I propose removal of xargs(1) from base system and moving it
> to ports tree. The new port in sysutils/xargs should be marked as
> BROKEN just after creation - that's obvious.
>
> Short procedure for removing xargs(1) from your life:
>
> Version #1 - for experienced sysadmins (local solution):
>
> rm -f /usr/bin/xargs (the -f is for those lucky ones who have ditched
> xargs(1) long ago, but just want to make sure
> it will vanish for good)
>
> Version #2 - for enterprise (ie. business) users, who are searching for their
> way in life (overwhelming majority) (local solution, still):
>
> find / -print0 | grep -v xargs | xargs -0 rm -f {} \;
> (the -v switch for grep adds some *verbosity*
> during operation)
>
> Version #3 - for commiters only (global solution, all FreeBSD users are urged to
> cvs up/cvsup right after the commit, but one of presented local
> solutions is still necessary to get rid of the venerous xargs(1)
> from your system):
>
> freefall% rm -rf $CVSROOT/src/usr.bin/xargs
> (to trash it altogether with version history,
> and make sure it will never come back)
>
> As a replacement for the 'functionality' present in xargs(1), I propose
> implementing arbitrary length argument list passing right in the operating
> system.
that wouldn't do what I want to do with xargs.
It may not be wonderful but it's expected..
If you wna to get ugliness out of the system, how about starting with
Perl :-)
>
> Yours sincerly, Jackie 'business-first' Cook.
>
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