From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG  Mon Sep 22 08:51:55 2003
Return-Path: <owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125])
	by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AC84316A4C1
	for <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>;
	Mon, 22 Sep 2003 08:51:55 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from priv-edtnes10-hme0.telusplanet.net (outbound02.telus.net
	[199.185.220.221])
	by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DF34643FE0
	for <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>;
	Mon, 22 Sep 2003 08:51:53 -0700 (PDT)
	(envelope-from cpressey@catseye.mine.nu)
Received: from kallisti.ca ([207.81.23.108])
	by priv-edtnes10-hme0.telusplanet.netSMTP
	<20030922155152.VOCV17782.priv-edtnes10-hme0.telusplanet.net@kallisti.ca>;
	Mon, 22 Sep 2003 09:51:52 -0600
Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2003 08:54:16 -0700
From: Chris Pressey <cpressey@catseye.mine.nu>
To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Message-Id: <20030922085416.605aca6b.cpressey@catseye.mine.nu>
In-Reply-To: <JA8AAAAAAgMHPAABYQADV7qgzdhU@master.hel.fi>
References: <JA8AAAAAAgH8RAABYQADV7qgzdhU@master.hel.fi>
	<20030919083627.K99065@wonkity.com>
	<JA8AAAAAAgMHPAABYQADV7qgzdhU@master.hel.fi>
Organization: Cat's Eye Technologies
X-Mailer: Sylpheed version 0.9.4 (GTK+ 1.2.10; i386-portbld-freebsd4.8)
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
cc: mikael.karlsson@hel.fi
Subject: Re: Cat a directory
X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1
Precedence: list
List-Id: User questions <freebsd-questions.freebsd.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions>,
	<mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-questions>
List-Post: <mailto:freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
List-Help: <mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions>,
	<mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2003 15:51:55 -0000
X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2003 15:51:55 -0000

On 22 Sep 2003 09:06:00 +0300
"Karlsson Mikael HKI/SOSV" <mikael.karlsson@hel.fi> wrote:

> [...]
> Ruben de Groot wrote (19.9.2003  13:34):
> >
> >So why don't you for example alias cat to cat -v in your system
> >profile and login scripts? This will display non-printing characters
> >so they are visible and don't mangle terminal settings.
> 
> So it's better for a newbie to get understandable jibrish from cat
> when run on directories then an error message stating that they are
> trying to run cat on a directory like ls says when they try to run ls
> on a file. But as I said earlier who cares, right? Other OSs have only
> had this for "a couple" of year so why would we!!!

Mikael,

Please understand that FreeBSD is more oriented towards classicists,
luddites, and other sticks-in-the-mud, than propellerhead "early
adopter" users-to-be-friendly-to.  (At least, it used to be; I honestly
have no idea what's going on in 5.x these days.)

Anyway, why not write a script for these users along the lines of:

  #!/usr/bin/perl

  foreach $f (@ARGV)
  {
    if (-d $f) {
      print "cat: $f: is a directory\n";
      exit 1;
    }
  }
  system "cat @ARGV";

Also, I believe 'GNU ls', in the ports, supports coloured directory
listings.

-Chris