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Date: Sun, 2 Apr 1995 10:36:09 +1000
From: Bruce Evans <bde@zeta.org.au>
Message-Id: <199504020036.KAA24233@godzilla.zeta.org.au>
To: bde@zeta.org.au, jkh@freefall.cdrom.com
Subject: Re: MBONE interfaces and snazzy install tools.
Cc: bde@godzilla.zeta.org.AU, hackers@freefall.cdrom.com,
        install-geeks@FreeBSD.org, joerg@sax.de,
        joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de, nate@trout.sri.mt.net,
        wosch@cs.tu-berlin.de
Sender: hackers-owner@FreeBSD.org
Precedence: bulk

>> You mean, like /bin/mv is a 20 line C program (I'll allow a generous
>> factor of 10 for perl's superiority over C) :-).
>> 
>> (/bin/mv has to be very complicated to handle things like recursive
>> moves across file systems, preserving all attributes.)

>Silly Bruce! :-)

>We're talking about /stand tools here - they don't have to sing and
>dance, they just have to be able to carry out primitive operations and
>effect repair.  And even if you're talking about a 2 line perl script

Another silly comment: do you mean like the non-singing, non-dancing
386BSD /stand tools? :-).

>vs a 2 line C program, the perl script will win just due to the
>overhead we incur in producing our well-padded a.outs!

Sure, but I doubt that file modes (including the ones set by chflags)
and errors can be handled in 2 lines of anything.  Don't forget to
install /tmp with perms 1777 (cp -pR botches the 1000 flag).  Don't
forget to install /kernel and libc.so with flag schg.

Bruce