On Sun, Mar 15, 2015 at 5:54 PM, Paul Eggert <egg...@cs.ucla.edu> wrote: > Mark Adler wrote: >> >> You could allow only compression level options in the environment >> variable, which I think was its main intent in the first place. > > > The documentation currently suggests using GZIP to specify -q, -v, and > --name (-N), so it appears that this intent was lost long ago. > > Allowing "harmless" options in GZIP raises the question: where does one draw > the line between "harmless" and "harmful"? Clearly options like -d and -t > are typically harmful. In contrast, -q, -v, -n, -N, and -1 through -9 might > be harmless in many cases, though they could still cause problems in some. > > Any rule that says that GZIP is OK for some options but not others would add > some complexity to the spec, and would be confusing in the long run for > users. > > I'm inclined to implement your suggestion immediately (i.e., for the next > release of gzip), while documenting that the GZIP environment variable is > obsolescent and that we plan to remove it entirely later.
Sounds good. I too prefer to deprecate, and then (a release or two later) to remove entirely. There is just too much room for "surprise", otherwise.
