GNU bug report logs - #19456
touch: add -v, --verbose option

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Jari Aalto <jari.aalto <at> cante.net>
To: bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org
Subject: GNU coreutils - touch / add -v, --verbose option
Date: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 10:33:41 +0200

It would be nice to see progress of touched files. Please
add option[1]:

  -v, --verbose

Jari

[1] Not included in touch(1), GNU coreutils 8.23

Message #8 received at 19456 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Pádraig Brady <P <at> draigBrady.com>
To: Jari Aalto <jari.aalto <at> cante.net>, 19456 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#19456: GNU coreutils - touch / add -v, --verbose option
Date: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 11:45:00 +0000

On 28/12/14 08:33, Jari Aalto wrote:
> 
> It would be nice to see progress of touched files. Please
> add option[1]:
> 
>   -v, --verbose
> 
> Jari
> 
> [1] Not included in touch(1), GNU coreutils 8.23

Maybe. What's your use case exactly.
In other tools that have --verbose output,
there is the opportunity to distinguish operations,
or identify when possible long running operations are finished.
Neither is the case though for touch.

If you just wanted to see each block of files
that touch is processing, perhaps using tee would suffice like?

  find ... | tee /dev/tty | xargs touch ...

cheers,
Pádraig.

Message #11 received at 19456 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: jari <jari.aalto <at> cante.net>
To: Pádraig Brady <P <at> draigBrady.com>
Cc: 19456 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#19456: GNU coreutils - touch / add -v, --verbose option
Date: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 13:50:02 +0200

On 2014-12-28 11:45, Pádraig Brady wrote:
| On 28/12/14 08:33, Jari Aalto wrote:
| > 
| > It would be nice to see progress of touched files. Please
| > add option[1]:
| > 
| >   -v, --verbose
| > 
| > Jari
| > 
| > [1] Not included in touch(1), GNU coreutils 8.23
| 
| Maybe. What's your use case exactly.

To see progress of touched files. With wild cards, it's usually
not obvious what files were affected.

| In other tools that have --verbose output,
| there is the opportunity to distinguish operations,
| or identify when possible long running operations are finished.
| Neither is the case though for touch.
|
| If you just wanted to see each block of files
| that touch is processing, perhaps using tee would suffice like?
| 
|   find ... | tee /dev/tty | xargs touch ...

This isn't really user friendly to use.

The --verbose option would be perfect.

Jari

Message #14 received at 19456 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Andreas Schwab <schwab <at> linux-m68k.org>
To: jari <jari.aalto <at> cante.net>
Cc: 19456 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, Pádraig Brady <P <at> draigBrady.com>
Subject: Re: bug#19456: GNU coreutils - touch / add -v, --verbose option
Date: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 13:08:34 +0100

jari <jari.aalto <at> cante.net> writes:

> To see progress of touched files. With wild cards, it's usually
> not obvious what files were affected.

(set -x; touch *)

Andreas.

-- 
Andreas Schwab, schwab <at> linux-m68k.org
GPG Key fingerprint = 58CA 54C7 6D53 942B 1756  01D3 44D5 214B 8276 4ED5
"And now for something completely different."

Message #17 received at 19456 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Jim Meyering <jim <at> meyering.net>
To: Jari Aalto <jari.aalto <at> cante.net>
Cc: 19456 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#19456: GNU coreutils - touch / add -v, --verbose option
Date: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 20:35:44 -0800

On Sun, Dec 28, 2014 at 12:33 AM, Jari Aalto <jari.aalto <at> cante.net> wrote:
> It would be nice to see progress of touched files. Please
> add option[1]:

Hi Jari,
My preference is to avoid adding the --verbose option
to programs like touch.  Here is some explanation for
why I have seriously considered taking the relatively
drastic step of removing that option from the ch???
commands that currently accept it (chmod, chown,
chgrp):

https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/coreutils/2010-08/msg00042.html

The case for touch is not quite the same, but the above
shows where my bias originates.

Message #20 received at 19456 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: jari <jari.aalto <at> cante.net>
To: Jim Meyering <jim <at> meyering.net>
Cc: 19456 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#19456: GNU coreutils - touch / add -v, --verbose option
Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2014 09:14:48 +0200

On 2014-12-28 20:35, Jim Meyering wrote:
| On Sun, Dec 28, 2014 at 12:33 AM, Jari Aalto <jari.aalto <at> cante.net> wrote:
| > It would be nice to see progress of touched files. Please
| > add option[1]:
| 
| Hi Jari,
| My preference is to avoid adding the --verbose option
| to programs like touch.  Here is some explanation for
| why I have seriously considered taking the relatively
| drastic step of removing that option from the ch???
| commands that currently accept it (chmod, chown,
| chgrp):
| 
| https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/coreutils/2010-08/msg00042.html
| 
| The case for touch is not quite the same, but the above
| shows where my bias originates.

about ch???:

    I read the above. I personally wouldn't think:

      "All printed information has to be 100% accurate"

    If the manual page documented that due to multiple processes, or
    ownerwhip issue, the output of the commands may not represent
    correctly previous states or even changed stated --- that would be
    enough for me to accept any less than 100 % accuracy in displayed
    messages. Perhaps there are not that too many scripts that actually
    rely on this information.

    For the chmod, chown of course it would be a mistake for a script
    to rely on the output information.

    But removing the option from all? Please don't. Rather discuss the
    prolematics of providing such information in the manual page.

You see, the older we get, the less we want to remember the possibly
cryptic and complex command that could provide the information we'd
like to see.

E.g. for the touch(1) cases where, there were shown alternatives to get
the information; it still wouldn't be as convenient.

I'm lazy, or becoming more lazy as years go by. I'd like the commands
to do the work for me; other people could also benefit from
functionality and not needing to scratch their heads to think ways to
get the infomation in other means.

These:

    touch --verbose
    touch -v

would be so much nicer to use.

Jari

Message #23 received at 19456 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Bernhard Voelker <mail <at> bernhard-voelker.de>
To: jari <jari.aalto <at> cante.net>, Pádraig Brady
 <P <at> draigBrady.com>
Cc: 19456 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#19456: GNU coreutils - touch / add -v, --verbose option
Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2014 15:00:32 +0100

On 12/28/2014 12:50 PM, jari wrote:
> On 2014-12-28 11:45, Pádraig Brady wrote:
> |   find ... | tee /dev/tty | xargs touch ...
>
> This isn't really user friendly to use.
>
> The --verbose option would be perfect.

xargs (from GNU findutils) has a --verbose alias -t option:

  $ find ... | xargs --verbose touch

Have a nice day,
Berny

Message #26 received at 19456 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Assaf Gordon <assafgordon <at> gmail.com>
To: 19456 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#19456: GNU coreutils - touch / add -v, --verbose option
Date: Sun, 21 Oct 2018 15:47:27 -0600

tags 19456 wontfix
severity 19456 wishlist
retitle 19456 touch: add -v, --verbose option
close 19456
stop

(triaging old bugs)

Hello,


On 28/12/14 09:35 PM, Jim Meyering wrote:
> On Sun, Dec 28, 2014 at 12:33 AM, Jari Aalto <jari.aalto <at> cante.net> 
wrote:
>> It would be nice to see progress of touched files. Please
>> add option[1]:

> Hi Jari,
> My preference is to avoid adding the --verbose option
> to programs like touch.

On 30/12/14 07:00 AM, Bernhard Voelker wrote:
> On 12/28/2014 12:50 PM, jari wrote:
>> On 2014-12-28 11:45, Pádraig Brady wrote:
>> |   find ... | tee /dev/tty | xargs touch ...
>>
>> This isn't really user friendly to use.
>>
>> The --verbose option would be perfect.
> 
> xargs (from GNU findutils) has a --verbose alias -t option:
> 
>    $ find ... | xargs --verbose touch
> 

Given the above, and with no further comments in 4 years,
I'm closing this as "wontfix".

Discussion can continue by replying to this thread.


-assaf

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