Messages in this thread | | | Date | Tue, 6 Apr 1999 11:05:12 +1000 | From | Kevin Lentin <> | Subject | Re: GNU/Linux stance by Richard Stallman |
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On Mon, Apr 05, 1999 at 10:18:15AM +0300, Alexander L. Belikoff wrote: > > Not sure. Although '--help' and '--version' act as exceptions, they > also create a rule: every program must identify itself and provide > some help. After all we are not talking about spiffy copyright string > here. I think the advantage of making UNIX more user friendly is well > worth it. > > Of course, this will definitely break some pereverted script that > calls 'true' with the arguments above. :-)
It may not be perverted. What if you have a script that has the option of excluding a certain command from running (think of the weird stuff in autoconf) so you use $(COMMAND) "$@" a lot in your script and COMMAND="/usr/bin/frob" but if /etc/nofrob exists you set COMMAND="/bin/true" which effectively turns off $(COMMAND) without the need for a if/fi block around EVERY call to it and it always succeeds.
Unless someone puts --version into the command line (which may not get sucked up by your script if the "$@" was a $3 instead!
To me, that doesn't sound like a very perverted situation, but that may say something about me :-)
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