GNU bug report logs - #23090
true and false not POSIX

Previous Next

Full log

Message #60 received at 23090 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eric Blake <eblake <at> redhat.com>
To: Ruediger Meier <sweet_f_a <at> gmx.de>
Cc: 23090 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#23090: true and false not POSIX
Date: Tue, 22 Mar 2016 12:56:58 -0600

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

On 03/22/2016 12:35 PM, Ruediger Meier wrote:

>>> I suggest an enhancement for portability and implementation
>>> simplicity to remove the options --version and --help from true,
>>> false echo and [.
>>
>> Sorry, but that would violate GNU Coding Standards, so we aren't
>> going to do it.
> 
> So then test --help is a coreutils bug because it does not respect GNU 
> Coding Standard? As already said the exit codes are for sure not 
> GNU-style too.

No, 'test --help' is a special case where we follow the POSIX rules
always, because we have '[ --help' in its place for when we want to
expose the GNU capabilities of the same .c file.

> 
> What about changing GNU Coding Standards to allow to break them if they 
> don't make any sense like in this case?

You're welcome to propose a change to the standards; but they are not
maintained on this list; see bug-standards <at> gnu.org  If you get that
change approved by rms, then we'll adjust coreutils to match.  But rms
will probably ask for the coreutils' maintainers' opinion before
approving such a change, so it will be an uphill battle on your side.

-- 
Eric Blake   eblake redhat com    +1-919-301-3266
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org

[signature.asc (application/pgp-signature, attachment)]

Previous Next

GNU bug tracking system
Copyright (C) 1999 Darren O. Benham, 1997,2003 nCipher Corporation Ltd, 1994-97 Ian Jackson.