From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Nov 21 10:43:50 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 27F21C4E for ; Wed, 21 Nov 2012 10:43:50 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd-questions@m.gmane.org) Received: from plane.gmane.org (plane.gmane.org [80.91.229.3]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CDFF68FC14 for ; Wed, 21 Nov 2012 10:43:49 +0000 (UTC) Received: from list by plane.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1Tb7md-00085b-G3 for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Wed, 21 Nov 2012 11:43:57 +0100 Received: from 79-139-19-75.prenet.pl ([79.139.19.75]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Wed, 21 Nov 2012 11:43:55 +0100 Received: from jb.1234abcd by 79-139-19-75.prenet.pl with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Wed, 21 Nov 2012 11:43:55 +0100 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org From: jb Subject: Re: portsnap Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2012 10:43:30 +0000 (UTC) Lines: 38 Message-ID: References: <201211201826.qAKIQq8C097714@mail.r-bonomi.com> <20121121095302.82a3708e.freebsd@edvax.de> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: sea.gmane.org User-Agent: Loom/3.14 (http://gmane.org/) X-Loom-IP: 79.139.19.75 (Mozilla/5.0 (X11; FreeBSD i386; rv:16.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/16.0) X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2012 10:43:50 -0000 Polytropon edvax.de> writes: > ... > > Yes, it is a keyword, a keyword parameter that tells CLI command what to do > > (yes, a keyword that may be taken verbatim or translated into an internal > > command parameter(s), a keyword that represents an action). > > But, it is not a command, or parameter of type command. > > I think Robert is right (which implies that you are wrong), at > least in acknowledging the _possibility_ to interpret _certain_ > command line arguments as "commands to the program" (where a > program can do various actions), in opposite to a "modifier" > (which changes the way the "one action" a program performs > in a certain way). > ... Putting aside the linguistics about executable command, entry, function, parameter, and argument - let's reduce the case to one common ground, so we can compare them. The are two entities, each having in their description as receiving a command as a parameter, namely: - portsnap ... command ... e.g. portsnap fetch - system(command); e.g. system("ls -al"); The former is passed an action keyword as an argument (I like the word "keyword"; we could use "command keyword" as perhaps even a better fit and the closest to describe the nature of it). The latter is passed a command as an argument. So, the manual for portsnap(8) is imprecise, actually unfortunate because misleading. jb