56 messages in org.freebsd.freebsd-stableRE: tail| From | Sent On | Attachments |
|---|---|---|
| Chris Byrnes | Apr 29, 2001 9:24 pm | |
| Juha Saarinen | Apr 29, 2001 9:29 pm | |
| David W.Chapman Jr. | Apr 29, 2001 9:31 pm | |
| Christopher Schulte | Apr 29, 2001 9:32 pm | |
| Mike Tancsa | Apr 29, 2001 9:33 pm | |
| Dan Langille | Apr 29, 2001 9:34 pm | |
| Juha Saarinen | Apr 29, 2001 10:04 pm | |
| Chris Byrnes | Apr 29, 2001 10:07 pm | |
| Juha Saarinen | Apr 29, 2001 10:08 pm | |
| Kris Kennaway | Apr 29, 2001 10:12 pm | |
| David W.Chapman Jr. | Apr 29, 2001 10:15 pm | |
| Mike Meyer | Apr 29, 2001 10:15 pm | |
| Ted Faber | Apr 29, 2001 10:21 pm | |
| Juha Saarinen | Apr 29, 2001 10:55 pm | |
| Juha Saarinen | Apr 29, 2001 10:55 pm | |
| Juha Saarinen | Apr 29, 2001 10:58 pm | |
| David W. Chapman Jr. | Apr 29, 2001 11:04 pm | |
| Steve O'Hara-Smith | Apr 29, 2001 11:20 pm | |
| Mike Meyer | Apr 29, 2001 11:30 pm | |
| Juha Saarinen | Apr 29, 2001 11:53 pm | |
| Juha Saarinen | Apr 29, 2001 11:53 pm | |
| Mike Meyer | Apr 29, 2001 11:58 pm | |
| Jordan Hubbard | Apr 30, 2001 12:00 am | |
| Juha Saarinen | Apr 30, 2001 12:11 am | |
| Jordan Hubbard | Apr 30, 2001 12:18 am | |
| Mike Meyer | Apr 30, 2001 12:23 am | |
| Andre Goeree | Apr 30, 2001 12:33 am | |
| Valentin Nechayev | Apr 30, 2001 1:03 am | |
| Valentin Nechayev | Apr 30, 2001 1:18 am | |
| Raymond Wiker | Apr 30, 2001 1:54 am | |
| David Malone | Apr 30, 2001 2:13 am | |
| Kal Torak | Apr 30, 2001 2:24 am | |
| Panagiotis Astithas | Apr 30, 2001 2:33 am | |
| Oliver Fromme | Apr 30, 2001 5:03 am | |
| Donn Miller | Apr 30, 2001 6:23 am | |
| Rodney W. Grimes | Apr 30, 2001 8:43 am | |
| Ted Faber | Apr 30, 2001 9:00 am | |
| Chris Byrnes | Apr 30, 2001 9:08 am | |
| Arthur W. Neilson III | Apr 30, 2001 11:41 am | |
| Donn Miller | Apr 30, 2001 11:53 am | |
| Sue Blake | Apr 30, 2001 12:35 pm | |
| Juha Saarinen | Apr 30, 2001 12:43 pm | |
| Lyndon Nerenberg | Apr 30, 2001 12:48 pm | |
| Lyndon Nerenberg | Apr 30, 2001 12:53 pm | |
| Dan Langille | Apr 30, 2001 1:01 pm | |
| Fred Gilham | Apr 30, 2001 1:39 pm | |
| Juha Saarinen | Apr 30, 2001 2:02 pm | |
| Chad R. Larson | Apr 30, 2001 6:27 pm | |
| Steve O'Hara-Smith | Apr 30, 2001 10:29 pm | |
| Jano Lukac | Apr 30, 2001 10:37 pm | |
| Jordan Hubbard | May 1, 2001 12:16 am | |
| Doug Russell | May 1, 2001 2:22 am | |
| Doug Russell | May 1, 2001 4:28 am | |
| Matthew Hunt | May 1, 2001 9:36 am | |
| Christian Chen | May 2, 2001 12:33 am | |
| Oliver Fromme | May 2, 2001 2:55 am |
| Subject: | RE: tail | |
|---|---|---|
| From: | Mike Meyer (mw...@mired.org) | |
| Date: | Apr 29, 2001 11:30:10 pm | |
| List: | org.freebsd.freebsd-stable | |
Juha Saarinen <ju...@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 <mw...@mired.org> http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/ Independent WWW/Perforce/FreeBSD/Unix consultant, email for more information.
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