Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2001 01:30:32 -0500 From: Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> To: "Juha Saarinen" <juha@saarinen.org> Cc: "Mike Meyer" <mwm@mired.org>, "Dan Langille" <dan@langille.org>, "Chris Byrnes" <chris@jeah.net>, <stable@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: RE: tail Message-ID: <15085.1672.680397.456359@guru.mired.org> In-Reply-To: <KPECIILENDDLPCNIMLOFEEOKCCAA.juha@saarinen.org> References: <15084.62729.75795.555796@guru.mired.org> <KPECIILENDDLPCNIMLOFEEOKCCAA.juha@saarinen.org>
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Juha Saarinen <juha@saarinen.org> types: > :: Well, yes, tail on a directory is a silly thing to do unthinkingly. > :: But the silly one isn't tail, it's the user who issued the command > :: without thinking. > So the butter-fingered luser must be punished? Having to live with the consequences of their own buttery fingers is punishment enough. Running tail on a file that's not ascii text - whether it's a directory, a binary, or something else - usually does strange things to the terminal, which will do. > :: More proof that linux isn't Unix. > :: > :: On Unix, it's generally more important to make sure the user can shoot > :: anything they want than it is to keep the user from shooting > :: themselves in the foot. > In that case, tail should cause a kernel panic if you try to run it on a > directory. If you really want to wallow in pendantry, please remember that > "shooting yourself in the foot" isn't the right metaphor in this context. Considering that it's the result of being butter-fingered, it seems highly appropriate. The real issue is why should a command raise an error for no good reason. Either a kernel panic or a message is a bit extreme just because a user issued a command that someone else thinks is unusual. Until you can prove that there is no use for the output of tail on a directory, adding code to tail to generate an error in that case is silly. <mike -- Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/ Independent WWW/Perforce/FreeBSD/Unix consultant, email for more information. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message
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