Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2008 20:24:02 -0700 (PDT) From: Unga <unga888@yahoo.com> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Why not GNU cmp? Message-ID: <935484.39759.qm@web57008.mail.re3.yahoo.com> In-Reply-To: <20080924230717.GE1889@kokopelli.hydra>
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--- On Thu, 9/25/08, Chad Perrin <perrin@apotheon.com> wrote: > From: Chad Perrin <perrin@apotheon.com> > Subject: Re: Why not GNU cmp? > To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org > Date: Thursday, September 25, 2008, 7:07 AM > On Wed, Sep 24, 2008 at 11:05:19AM -0400, matt donovan > wrote: > > On Wed, Sep 24, 2008 at 10:31 AM, Bill Moran > <wmoran@potentialtech.com>wrote: > > > Unga <unga888@yahoo.com> wrote: > > > > > > > > I have noted FreeBSD uses GNU diff, GNU > diff3 and GNU sdiff. Why FreeBSD > > > uses its own version of cmp? why not use GNU cmp? > Is the GNU cmp not > > > compatible with FreeBSD? > > > > > > The GNU version of cmp is not licensed under the > BSD license. > > > > > > Given enough time/manpower, all the GNU tools in > FreeBSD will eventually > > > be replaced with BSD-licensed versions. > > > > and it's not GNU diff it's BSD diff > > Are you sure about that? I thought FreeBSD was using GNU > diff as its > standard diff, and that a BSD diff was only available > through ports > (thanks in part to the efforts of someone working on > BSD-licensed text > tools during this year's Google SOC). > FreeBSD diff direcotry is /usr/src/gnu/usr.bin/diff . It refers to /usr/src/contrib/diff for diff sources. It seems FreeBSD apply a patch to GNU diff to get an option 'o' to get a old-style output. Applying a patch on a GNU app does not become BSD unless you write it from scratch. In my past experience, the GNU ncurses and Flex (http://flex.sourceforge.net/) are simple not compatible with FreeBSD even though Flex is licensed under BSD. I wanted to know whether the GNU cmp is also the same fate other than the license because all these GNU tools comes in one package, Diffutils. I was wondering why FreeBSD wrote their own version of cmp. If it just the license, then that's fine. I prefer the BSD versions of diff, etc. when available. Regards Unga
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