:: UNIX is about doing what you ask for. You want to tail/cat a
:: directory, who is the system to tell you otherwise.
That's just silly.
Who hasn't mistakenly tailed/cat'ed a directory?
I thought the "User-unfriendliness Is Cool" era was long buried.
-- Juha
To Unsubscribe: send mail to [E
From: Mike Meyer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: RE: tail
Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2001 00:15:53 -0500
> On Unix, it's generally more important to make sure the user can shoot
> anything they want than it is to keep the user from shooting
> themselves in the foot.
How does that quote go, "Unix doesn't sto
Juha Saarinen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> types:
> :: The real issue is why should a command raise an error for no good
> :: reason. Either a kernel panic or a message is a bit extreme just
> :: because a user issued a command that someone else thinks is
> :: unusual. Until you can prove that there is no
:: Not so. Being able to read a directory with normal tools is (on rare
:: occasions) useful - diagnosing a mess if nothing else. Being
:: unable to do so
:: brings no useful functionality it just looks prettier.
So seeing a mess with tail/cat is useful to you?
To Unsubscribe: send mail to
:: The real issue is why should a command raise an error for no good
:: reason. Either a kernel panic or a message is a bit extreme just
:: because a user issued a command that someone else thinks is
:: unusual. Until you can prove that there is no use for the output of
:: tail on a directory, ad
>Please let me know how can I switch back to 4.3 beta's
>source tree?
Don't! Go for RELENG_4_3 instead; PPPoE works with RELENG_4_3 as of middle
of last week - I know, I use it at home. And given the nature of
RELENG_4_3, I'm convinced it works with the current RELENG_4_3 as well.
--
Juha Saarinen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> types:
> :: Well, yes, tail on a directory is a silly thing to do unthinkingly.
> :: But the silly one isn't tail, it's the user who issued the command
> :: without thinking.
> So the butter-fingered luser must be punished?
Having to live with the consequences of
On Mon, 30 Apr 2001 17:08:47 +1200
"Juha Saarinen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
JS> More desirable behaviour, IMO.
Not so. Being able to read a directory with normal tools is (on rare
occasions) useful - diagnosing a mess if nothing else. Being unable to do so
brings no useful functionality
I'm sure my mail filters can handle it, but this has been the typical
practice for most programs. vi cat and a few others, ee will actually give
an error, but its one of the few. You'd have to speak to some of the
developers as to why it does this.
> Well, most people don't, do they? You go tail
On Mon, Apr 30, 2001 at 05:08:47PM +1200, Juha Saarinen wrote:
> Well, it's silly to do that unthinkingly. Here's what happens on a Debian
> box:
>
> juha@cyrus:~$ tail /
> tail: /: Is a directory
>
> More desirable behaviour, IMO.
FYI, and maybe surprisingly, you're about to start a flame war.
Juha Saarinen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> types:
> :: tail is doing as ordered. Directories and files are the same. So it's
> :: giving you the last ten lines of the file /
>
> Tail voss only obeyink orters???
>
> Well, it's silly to do that unthinkingly.
Well, yes, tail on a directory is a silly th
but its not, its a file, almost no other tool errors out when you try to
modify a "directory"
On Monday 30 April 2001 00:07, Chris Byrnes wrote:
> Id expect an output of something like "Error: / is a directory" or
> something
>
>
> Chris Byrnes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> JEAH Communications, LLC.
>
12 matches
Mail list logo
