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Date:      Sat, 15 Mar 2008 23:29:19 -0700
From:      "David O'Brien" <obrien@FreeBSD.org>
To:        Bert JW Regeer <xistence@0x58.com>
Cc:        Stanislav Sedov <stas@FreeBSD.org>, FreeBSD Hackers <freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.org>, Steven Kreuzer <skreuzer@exit2shell.com>
Subject:   Re: OpenBSD sdiff Question
Message-ID:  <20080316062919.GB88526@dragon.NUXI.org>
In-Reply-To: <432044E0-812E-4C13-A62D-EEA7170DADB9@0x58.com>
References:  <20080314231404.GB99765@scruffy.exit2shell.com> <20080315135916.GH68662@dracon.ht-systems.ru> <432044E0-812E-4C13-A62D-EEA7170DADB9@0x58.com>

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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?

-- 
-- David  (obrien@FreeBSD.org)



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