From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Oct 31 00:38:22 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8374116A536 for ; Tue, 31 Oct 2006 00:38:22 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mwm-keyword-freebsdhackers2.e313df@mired.org) Received: from mired.org (vpn.mired.org [66.92.153.74]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 13E4F43D46 for ; Tue, 31 Oct 2006 00:38:21 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from mwm-keyword-freebsdhackers2.e313df@mired.org) Received: (qmail 60440 invoked by uid 1001); 31 Oct 2006 00:39:04 -0000 Received: by bhuda.mired.org (tmda-sendmail, from uid 1001); Mon, 30 Oct 2006 19:39:04 -0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-ID: <17734.39720.437654.333677@bhuda.mired.org> Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 19:39:04 -0500 To: Freddie Cash In-Reply-To: <200610301613.59298.fcash@ocis.net> References: <20061029222847.GA68272@marvin.astase.com> <45466902.5090603@FreeBSD.org> <17734.27601.79021.873705@bhuda.mired.org> <200610301613.59298.fcash@ocis.net> X-Mailer: VM 7.17 under 21.4 (patch 19) "Constant Variable" XEmacs Lucid X-Primary-Address: mwm@mired.org X-face: "5Mnwy%?j>IIV\)A=):rjWL~NB2aH[}Yq8Z=u~vJ`"(,&SiLvbbz2W`; h9L,Yg`+vb1>RG% *h+%X^n0EZd>TM8_IB;a8F?(Fb"lw'IgCoyM.[Lg#r\ X-Delivery-Agent: TMDA/1.1.5 (Fettercairn) From: Mike Meyer Cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: [patch] rm can have undesired side-effects 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: Tue, 31 Oct 2006 00:38:22 -0000 In <200610301613.59298.fcash@ocis.net>, Freddie Cash typed: > On Monday 30 October 2006 01:17 pm, Mike Meyer wrote: > > In <45466902.5090603@FreeBSD.org>, Doug Barton > typed: > > > Simon L. Nielsen wrote: > > > > Personally I think rm should do what you ask it to do - if you ask > > > > it to overwrite a file which has multiple links, well... though > > > > luck. > > > > > > It's all well and good to say, "tough luck," but I don't think that's > > > what our users expect. > > > > I'm a user. It's what I expect. If I wanted an OS that protected me > > from myself, I wouldn't be running Unix. Please give me the rope I > > need to get the job done. If that happens to be enough that I can hang > > myself, and I sometimes do - well, I got what I asked for. When I want > > to be coddled, I'll run a different OS. > Isn't that what the -f option is for in every command? So how does the '-f' option to cc give me more rope? > By default, be conservative in what you do (error out with nice messages > when in doubt). So why doesn't "rm foo" not error out with a nice message if it would be removeing the last link to foo? After all, that's the conservative thing to do, and if the user really wants to remove the last link: > If the user knows what they are doing then let them specify -f. Now you've decided that you know better what the user wants than they do. That's not what I expect from a Unix system. The claim was that that's not "what our users expect". I was pointing out that there's at least one user who expects - indeed, prefers - that the system do what they tell it to, without trying to protect them from themselves. http://www.mired.org/consulting.html Independent Network/Unix/Perforce consultant, email for more information.