Pádraig Brady wrote: > On 10/29/2012 08:44 AM, Jim Meyering wrote: >> Pádraig Brady wrote: >> ... >>> Subject: [PATCH] timeout: add --exit-status to always propagate the >>> command's >>> exit status >>> >>> It's useful for commands that support running for an indeterminite >>> amount of time, to not return a specific timeout exit status (124), >>> and instead let the command handle the timeout signal and return >>> a status for the work done so far. >>> >>> * doc/coreutils.texi (timeout invocation): Describe the new option. >>> * src/timeout.c (use_exit_status): A new global boolean to >>> enable the --exit-status behavior. >> >> Thanks. This looks fine. >> >> Did you consider calling it --preserve-exit-status? >> That seems more descriptive to me, since it preserves the exit >> status of the command that timeout runs. >> When I first saw --exit-status, I wondered if it should have an =N >> after it, by which to specify a specific number. > > Yes I did. > --preserve-exit-status is better, but worse because it's longer. > Maybe split the difference with --preserve-status ?
These days, I prefer more expressive option names. As long as a short prefix is unique, length doesn't really matter. Here, --p is enough. However, --preserve-status seems ok, too. There is precedent for using "status" to mean "exit status" with md5sum's --status option. Your call.
