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Date:      Tue, 9 Jan 1996 10:41:52 -0500
From:      Brian Clapper <bmc@telebase.com>
To:        asami@cs.berkeley.edu (Satoshi Asami)
Cc:        freebsd-ports@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: linux `ls' port
Message-ID:  <199601091541.KAA20166@telebase.com.>
In-Reply-To: <6183026@toto.iv>

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>>>>> "Satoshi" == Satoshi Asami <asami@cs.berkeley.edu> writes:

Satoshi> Hi, as the author of the FreeBSD colorls, I just felt I should
Satoshi> come out to defend it a little. ;)

There's no need to defend anything.  There's nothing whatsoever wrong with
FreeBSD colorls; I ported the Linux version merely because, of the two good
colorized `ls' programs, I prefer the Linux one. ;-)

Satoshi> The few times I logged into linux machines, I've always been
Satoshi> wondering what good that does (the red compressed files and
Satoshi> stuff...isn't it already in there in the filename?)....

The same could be said for directories: `ls -F' puts a trailing `/' on
directories; why, then, is color necessary at all?  The answer, of course,
is that the eye can more quickly identify color differences; I can find
blue directories a lot faster than I can parse those files that happen to
end with `/'.  Likewise, it's useful--for me, at least--to be able to
quickly locate certain kinds of files with pre-defined extensions (e.g.,
compressed and gzip'd files); color is an aid in doing that.

Me>  * - permits you to limit colorization to tty devices only;

Satoshi> This is great.  What's the part that's doing this?  Maybe we can
Satoshi> add that to our colorls too.

I believe a simple `isatty' call is all that's being used--that, and a
check for the `colorize only if tty' option setting.

Me>  * - and permits separate colorization of "orphan" symbolic links.

Satoshi> Well, "colorls -lLG" works for me....

Again, it's all a matter of preference. :-) As I said, I wasn't trashing
your colorls, merely expressing (and porting) a preference.  I thought
perhaps others might share that preference, so I figured I'd make it
available.  Plus, it was a good, simple first port, allowing me to become
familiar with the way the ports infrastructure works.
----
Brian Clapper, bmc@telebase.com, http://www.netaxs.com/~bmc/



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