From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Mar 16 06:29:25 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 D979E106564A; Sun, 16 Mar 2008 06:29:25 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from obrien@NUXI.org) Received: from dragon.nuxi.org (trang.nuxi.org [74.95.12.85]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CA38D8FC1B; Sun, 16 Mar 2008 06:29:25 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from obrien@NUXI.org) Received: from dragon.nuxi.org (obrien@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by dragon.nuxi.org (8.14.1/8.14.1) with ESMTP id m2G6TJBE088641; Sat, 15 Mar 2008 23:29:19 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from obrien@dragon.nuxi.org) Received: (from obrien@localhost) by dragon.nuxi.org (8.14.2/8.14.1/Submit) id m2G6TJrU088640; Sat, 15 Mar 2008 23:29:19 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from obrien) Date: Sat, 15 Mar 2008 23:29:19 -0700 From: "David O'Brien" To: Bert JW Regeer Message-ID: <20080316062919.GB88526@dragon.NUXI.org> Mail-Followup-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org, Bert JW Regeer , Stanislav Sedov , Steven Kreuzer References: <20080314231404.GB99765@scruffy.exit2shell.com> <20080315135916.GH68662@dracon.ht-systems.ru> <432044E0-812E-4C13-A62D-EEA7170DADB9@0x58.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <432044E0-812E-4C13-A62D-EEA7170DADB9@0x58.com> X-Operating-System: FreeBSD 8.0-CURRENT User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.16 (2007-06-09) Cc: Stanislav Sedov , FreeBSD Hackers , Steven Kreuzer Subject: Re: OpenBSD sdiff Question X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.org List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 16 Mar 2008 06:29:26 -0000 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)