From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Mar 17 15:54:43 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 21CA31065671 for ; Mon, 17 Mar 2008 15:54:43 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from dan@dan.emsphone.com) Received: from dan.emsphone.com (dan.emsphone.com [199.67.51.101]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DD0748FC25 for ; Mon, 17 Mar 2008 15:54:42 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from dan@dan.emsphone.com) Received: (from dan@localhost) by dan.emsphone.com (8.14.2/8.14.2) id m2HFsWGF028590; Mon, 17 Mar 2008 10:54:32 -0500 (CDT) (envelope-from dan) Date: Mon, 17 Mar 2008 10:54:32 -0500 From: Dan Nelson To: Steven Kreuzer Message-ID: <20080317155432.GC4295@dan.emsphone.com> References: <20080314231404.GB99765@scruffy.exit2shell.com> <20080315135916.GH68662@dracon.ht-systems.ru> <432044E0-812E-4C13-A62D-EEA7170DADB9@0x58.com> <20080316062919.GB88526@dragon.NUXI.org> <20080317154034.GA78551@scruffy.exit2shell.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20080317154034.GA78551@scruffy.exit2shell.com> X-OS: FreeBSD 7.0-STABLE User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.17 (2007-11-01) Cc: Stanislav Sedov , freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org, Bert JW Regeer Subject: Re: OpenBSD sdiff Question X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 17 Mar 2008 15:54:43 -0000 In the last episode (Mar 17), Steven Kreuzer said: > On Sat, Mar 15, 2008 at 11:29:19PM -0700, David O'Brien wrote: > > On Sat, Mar 15, 2008 at 03:21:01PM -0700, Bert JW Regeer wrote: > > > 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. > > > > $ ident failing-binary is the output that means something. A version > > string will not. > > > > > > > Programs that don't have a -v or --version switch are frustrating to > > > > Anyone used to working on BSD will not expect a -v switch. It > > isn't part of BSD tradition. The simple fact there is no obivous > > "version" to print just shows that in a OS that is developed and > > built as a whole, having a version on the util is meaningless. > > > > > Dropping -v would be a bad thing, and make the tools not > > > compatible, thus breaking many scripts that do expect a -v. > > > > Come on, how many scripts do you write that do "sdiff -v" today? > > I have to agree with this. > > I will submit the port without -v/--version > and worse comes to worse, add it in later if enough people complain. On the other hand, some programs that are contributed sources or are developed outside the FreeBSD cvs tree do have versions of their own. awk and tar, for example both recognize the --version flag (but not -v since that is already used). -- Dan Nelson dnelson@allantgroup.com