> Sasidhar Kasturi wrote:
> > Thank you,
> >          Is it that /usr/bin binaries are more
> advanced than that of 
> > /xpg4 things or .. the extensions of the /xpg4
> things?
> 
> They *should* be the same level of "advancement", but
> each has a
> different set of promises and expectations it needs
> to live up to...
> 
> > 
> > If i want to make some modifications in the code..
> Can i do it for 
> > /xpg4/bin commands or .. i should do it for
> /usr/bin commands??
> 
> 
> If you are doing this "just for yourself", it doesn't
> matter - fix
> the one you use.  If you intend to push these changes
> back into the
> OS.o source base, you will need to make the changes
> to both (and,
> possibly interact with the OpenSolaris ARC Community
> if your changes
> affect the architecture/interfaces of the commands).
> 
> In the case of df, I'm not at all sure why the two
> commands are
> different. (I'm sure someone else will chime in and
> educate me :-)

df(1m) man page seems to identify the difference as a -v option for /usr/bin/df,
and a -P option for /usr/xpg4/bin/df.  The Single Unix Specification v3 appears 
to require
the -P option:
http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/utilities/df.html


Both come from the same source file:
http://src.opensolaris.org/source/xref/onnv/onnv-gate/usr/src/cmd/fs.d/df.c
differentiated on whether or not XPG4 is defined on the compiler command line.
(A look at the source shows additional differences of the width of a couple of 
columns in
certain output formats, and of the field names in the header.)

Since those options don't conflict, unless some other custom or requirement 
reserves one
or both of those options for some global meaning if not otherwise used
(like maybe -v as verbose), I don't understand why both couldn't provide both 
options; even
if the output format difference needs to be maintained, that would make the 
usage identical,
and simplify both code and man page, minimizing the differences.

As an example of an addition to both in the not that distant past, consider the 
-h option
(more human-readable scaled output, i.e. K, M, G, etc); I think this was PSARC 
2001/183,
which appears not to have been opened; I don't know if any others, aside from 
one for a generic
scaled-output routine, apply to that particular example.

Which, in conjunction with some of the other discussion in this thread, gets me 
to thinking that
cases that are (then or later) taken as setting precedent beyond just what they 
enumerate
(i.e. beyond just specific commands or library routines or the like) should be 
considered for
opening on additional triggers (such as whenever a RFE or reference to them in 
a new case appears),
not just on request only; if not entirely, than at least in the part that 
establishes a broad precedent.
And it might be handy if there were an index of such precedents; the easier 
they were to find,
the more they could be honored, without causing delays to revise new cases for 
compliance.

(cc'd arc-discuss, due to nature of my digressions)
 
 
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