Date: Thu, 12 Aug 1999 15:16:39 +0200 From: Martin Cracauer <cracauer@cons.org> To: Bob Bishop <rb@gid.co.uk> Cc: Aaron Smith <aaron@mutex.org>, freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: New tests for test(1) Message-ID: <19990812151639.A17479@cons.org> In-Reply-To: <l03020902b3d86d86439c@[194.32.164.2]>; from Bob Bishop on Thu, Aug 12, 1999 at 12:26:41PM %2B0000 References: <37B2917A.6CBBC950@cdsec.com>; <37B2917A.6CBBC950@cdsec.com> <19990812040148.A13484@gelatinous.com> <l03020902b3d86d86439c@[194.32.164.2]>
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> >> thinking - wouldn't it be a good idea to add some new tests to test(1), > >> to compare files based on criteria like size or modification date? So far it has been policy for FreeBSD not to add options to commandline utilities that are replaceable by simple shell script constructs. Especially if that other construct is POSIX-compliant. Examples: - An option to date(1), which would print the machine's idea of the time, no matter what $TZ is set it. Easily replaceable by (unset TZ; date) - An option to a tool that puts out a single line of text to stdout. The option would make it print its line without the final newline. Easily replaceable by backquotes echo `thistool` Clearly, the functionality discussed falls into this category. ls -t and head are specified in POSIX, thus it isn't affected by the usualy shell script unportability like another poster implied. > >this seems undesirable to me, since using it immediately makes your shell > >scripts nonportable. i liked the ls -t suggestion though. > > Further, isn't test a builtin for most (all?) shells? Sounds like a can of > worms to me... FreeBSD's /bin/sh uses the external /bin/test. Most other shells in common use have it built in. You are right that this would confuse people no end since most couldn't use the same test(1) arguments in theirs scripts and interactivly. In a word, I'm against it. Whatever you want this for, it's the far better solution to have your own test(1)-like utility in your personal search path. Martin -- %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Martin Cracauer <cracauer@cons.org> http://www.cons.org/cracauer/ BSD User Group Hamburg, Germany http://www.bsdhh.org/ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
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