From owner-svn-src-head@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Nov 2 13:58:33 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: svn-src-head@FreeBSD.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 208081065679; Tue, 2 Nov 2010 13:58:33 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from kensmith@buffalo.edu) Received: from localmailB.acsu.buffalo.edu (localmail.buffalo.edu [128.205.5.200]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DBDDF8FC08; Tue, 2 Nov 2010 13:58:32 +0000 (UTC) Received: from localmailB.acsu.buffalo.edu (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by localhost (Postfix) with SMTP id BE46E133A; Tue, 2 Nov 2010 09:42:31 -0400 (EDT) Received: from localmailB.acsu.buffalo.edu (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by localmailB.acsu.buffalo.edu (Postfix) with ESMTP id E19A0139F; Tue, 2 Nov 2010 09:42:30 -0400 (EDT) Received: from mweb1.acsu.buffalo.edu (mweb1.acsu.buffalo.edu [128.205.5.238]) by localmailB.acsu.buffalo.edu (Prefixe) with ESMTP id D3E35148A; Tue, 2 Nov 2010 09:42:30 -0400 (EDT) Received: from [128.205.32.76] (bauer.cse.buffalo.edu [128.205.32.76]) by mweb1.acsu.buffalo.edu (Postfix) with ESMTP id BC4795B003B; Tue, 2 Nov 2010 09:42:30 -0400 (EDT) From: Ken Smith To: Alexander Best In-Reply-To: <20101102014059.GA91353@freebsd.org> References: <201010310921.o9V9LSo4075408@svn.freebsd.org> <20101031160603.GD2160@garage.freebsd.pl> <20101031191119.GM46314@acme.spoerlein.net> <1288620951.3596.32.camel@bauer.cse.buffalo.edu> <20101102014059.GA91353@freebsd.org> Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg="pgp-sha1"; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="=-U70p7GzrMpUxTsTTu+x7" Date: Tue, 02 Nov 2010 09:42:30 -0400 Message-ID: <1288705350.7246.24.camel@bauer.cse.buffalo.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.28.2 FreeBSD GNOME Team Port X-PM-EL-Spam-Prob: : 8% Cc: svn-src-head@FreeBSD.org, svn-src-all@FreeBSD.org, src-committers@FreeBSD.org, Pawel Jakub Dawidek , Ulrich Spoerlein Subject: Re: svn commit: r214596 - head/bin/rm X-BeenThere: svn-src-head@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: SVN commit messages for the src tree for head/-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 02 Nov 2010 13:58:33 -0000 --=-U70p7GzrMpUxTsTTu+x7 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Tue, 2010-11-02 at 01:40 +0000, Alexander Best wrote: > how about a compromise then? let's leave the -P switch in rm, but make it= a no > op! in addition to that add a new rm(1) entry explaining what the -P swit= ch did > and why exactly it was turned into a no op. let's be really eloborate on = this > issue and tell the user exactly every tiny detail that lead to the conclu= sion > that currently the -P switch serves no purpose and thus it was turned int= o a no > op. also a statement should be added to rm(1) that makes clear that the -= P flag > *will* come back to rm, once the low level work has been finished in orde= r to > decide (from userland) whether a specific disk supports overwriting block= s or > not. >=20 > thoughts?=20 This doesn't quite solve the issue I'm most concerned with. As a "best practices" type thing people are told to be careful to erase sensitive data. People right now may be using "rm -P" to do that, thinking they followed the best practices. And how many of you re-read the manual page for every command you use when a new version of the OS comes out? The tweaks to the manual page would prevent new people from being fooled into thinking they're following best practices but would do nothing to let people who found -P a while ago know they aren't actually following best practices after all. Making -P a no-op actually makes the above issue worse. As Ceri said, if anything it should fail. But I'm not sure what the difference is between -P failing any time you use it versus just removing -P until the support for it is in place. From the discussions so far it seems like the world has changed to the point support for it may not be possible. =20 --=20 Ken Smith - From there to here, from here to | kensmith@buffalo.edu there, funny things are everywhere. | - Theodor Geisel | --=-U70p7GzrMpUxTsTTu+x7 Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name="signature.asc" Content-Description: This is a digitally signed message part -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.10 (FreeBSD) iEYEABECAAYFAkzQFTkACgkQ/G14VSmup/YyfgCghXC/2nQvpe2bEZgEzSciN19f 828An3Mss8LjasqmHuNph0+79QswjhVK =MrIi -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --=-U70p7GzrMpUxTsTTu+x7--