Date: Sat, 15 Mar 2008 15:21:01 -0700 From: Bert JW Regeer <xistence@0x58.com> To: Stanislav Sedov <stas@FreeBSD.org> Cc: FreeBSD Hackers <freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org>, Steven Kreuzer <skreuzer@exit2shell.com> Subject: Re: OpenBSD sdiff Question Message-ID: <432044E0-812E-4C13-A62D-EEA7170DADB9@0x58.com> In-Reply-To: <20080315135916.GH68662@dracon.ht-systems.ru> References: <20080314231404.GB99765@scruffy.exit2shell.com> <20080315135916.GH68662@dracon.ht-systems.ru>
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--Apple-Mail-2--320804957 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit On Mar 15, 2008, at 06:59 , Stanislav Sedov wrote: > On Fri, Mar 14, 2008 at 07:14:04PM -0400 Steven Kreuzer mentioned: >> [...] >> >> For reference: >> $ sdiff -v >> sdiff (GNU diffutils) 2.8.7 >> Written by Thomas Lord. >> >> Copyright (C) 2004 Free Software Foundation, Inc. >> This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. >> There is NO >> warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR >> PURPOSE. >> >> And my port from OpenBSD: >> $ ./sdiff -v >> sdiff (BSD diffutils) 602111 >> Written by Raymond Lai. >> >> This work has been released into the public domain. >> > > Do we really need to display program version on -v switch? BSD has no > tradition to keep separate program version, it's just a part of an > entire OS. I believe we might just abandone this switch. > > -- > Stanislav Sedov > ST4096-RIPE Even if BSD has no tradition to keep a separate program version, it is still very handy to be able to give this data to other developers if something is failing. Programs that don't have a -v or --version switch are frustrating to people who are trying to find a workaround for a bug that is in that program, or when looking at documentation online, when the documentation is for one version and not for a newer version. It is a lot like uname on Linux not displaying what distribution it is running, making it harder to quickly figure out where stuff is located. Dropping -v would be a bad thing, and make the tools not compatible, thus breaking many scripts that do expect a -v. Bert JW Regeer p.s. Sorry Stan about the double email. I replied to your privately first, and then noticed my mistake. --Apple-Mail-2--320804957--
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