GNU bug report logs - #24926
ls-quotes: ls output has been made ugly

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From: Michael Schwager <mike <at> schwager.com>
To: 24926 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#24926: ls output has been made ugly
Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2016 09:50:54 -0600

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"...we don't mean to dictate, only to improve things" -Pádraig Brady
<http://unix.stackexchange.com/users/37127/p%c3%a1draig-brady> Feb 15 at
20:46
<http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/258679/why-is-ls-suddenly-wrapping-items-with-spaces-in-single-quotes#comment455651_262162>

Somebody went and dictated ls' new behavior, and now my files with spaces
look really really ugly.

I just upgraded to Fedora 24 which has the new ls. I rsync'ed my music from
my old hard drive to my new one and noticed spurious characters. I was
looking around, trying to find out what I did wrong/what it meant/etc. I
don't have single quotes in many of my filenames, although I do in some.

Look at this directory listing:
AWOLNation                  'Joe Jackson'
'Cage the Elephant'         'Joy Division'
'Calabria 2008'             'Joy Division-All Gods Angels Beware.m3u'
'Carly Rae Jepsen'          'Joy Division-Joy Division  The Peel Sessions
10 Dec 79.m3u'
'Cat Power'                 'Joy Division-The Peel Sessions Unreleased
Tracks.m3u'
'Culture Club'              'Katy Perry'
'Cyndi Lauper'              'Laura Branigan'
'Daft Punk'                 Offspring

That is just plain ugly. Don't you think I can see the spaces in my
filenames? What do those quotes do but add cruft? Who thinks they know
better than I do? How was this decision made? (that's a rhetorical
question, I don't want an answer because I've read the arguments and I
think it's a really bad idea.) Who ever thinks that what you get is not
what is actually there is ever a good idea???

Yes, you can opt out. This is akin to what email spammers have been teling
us for years about tracking us and sticking ads in our inboxes. That "Hey,
no problem- you can always opt out..." Even if you can (and there are some
legitimate sites out there that will opt you out), the point is that you
should not stick your choices into people's faces. Offer up the
alternative... don't create an alternative, then say "Now you get it
because I say so. Don't like it? You can always change it back..." That's
insulting.

-- 
-Mike Schwager

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