Date: Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:41:00 -0800 From: Xin LI <delphij@delphij.net> To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Suggestion: rename "killall" to "fkill", but wait five years to phase the new name in Message-ID: <4B31671C.8090005@delphij.net> In-Reply-To: <loom.20091223T011229-464@post.gmane.org> References: <c241693f0912212231g5c380246kf12f7bde974bb734@mail.gmail.com> <alpine.BSF.2.00.0912221409400.21806@qvfongpu.5c.ybpny> <loom.20091222T230421-82@post.gmane.org> <a78074950912221434i36be337co7ee1f9ad6bb5c921@mail.gmail.com> <c241693f0912221454o1a6bd54v7e1d7afb2694a9e2@mail.gmail.com> <4B315A5A.6040101@delphij.net> <loom.20091223T011229-464@post.gmane.org>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On 2009/12/22 16:21, Jason Spiro wrote: > Xin LI<delphij<at> delphij.net> writes: > >> killall can be used by scripts which just works in the past, and will >> never notice the warnings. > > On what scripts will nobody notice the warnings? For example, AFAIK, cron job > output is always mailed to root. The only scripts I can think of are scripts > called by web applications like PHP, and I can't think of any concrete case > where they would run killall. killall is used for instance, shutdown scripts. Yes you get the warning message on your console but not the remote ssh. [...] >> Then users are already familiar with FreeBSD would have to learn what >> "fkill" is, and after all, having them to pay for mistakes made by >> commercial Unix vendors does not seem to be a fair option. > > As I wrote elsewhere[1] in this thread, it seems to me the commercial vendors > made no mistakes here; only Linux and FreeBSD made mistakes. I think we can hardly call it a 'mistake'. Having a command that do the same thing what shutdown(8) should do doesn't seem to be the Unix way to do things. Speaking about commercial vendor, Mac OS X have the same killall as FreeBSD have. Granted, Mac OS X is not something we consider as traditional Unix, but it's certificated as Unix operating system after all. >> Well, I'd say it's too late for us to change since it's several years >> after we have 'killall' our way. > > I replied to this in the last paragraph of text in [1]. It's way too late to say something a "mistake" after about 15 years. I think it might be reasonable to document the System V behavior and how to do the same thing on FreeBSD in killall's manual page, but I'm afraid that's all we can do nowadays, since FreeBSD users are already get used with our killall behavior, changing the behavior/semantics after ten years just make a mess, so please drop this. >> pkill have '-I', at least on FreeBSD... > > There is no such option in pkill on Linux.[2] Please talk with the authors of Linux pkill. In open source world a well written patch would say more than a thousand of sayings. Cheers, -- Xin LI <delphij@delphij.net> http://www.delphij.net/ FreeBSD - The Power to Serve! Live free or die
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?4B31671C.8090005>