Subject: bug#6323: Enhancement request: Add wronly to Coreutils

From: Daniel Trebbien <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 1 Jun 2010 07:59:30 -0400

Over the past few days I have been working on a new Linux command-line
utility which I'm calling `wronly` (https://launchpad.net/wronly).
Basically what it does is copy its standard input to a file that is
specified on the command line, but also closes its standard out and
standard error if parsing of the command line options succeeds. It
also supports a `--no-follow` option, the code for which I'm pretty
proud of.

I am aware of the similar `tee` program that is already part of GNU
Coreutils, but I did not think that it would be wise for me to write a
patch for `tee` that just causes `tee` to similarly close its standard
error. I needed a program like `tee` that would close the standard
error stream, so I figured that there might be uses if such a program
were to close standard out as well. Of course, closing standard out in
`tee` would fundamentally break the utility, but I'm also not sure if
closing standard error in `tee` would cause problems for existing
scripts that depend on it.

Instead of my developing this project independently, a friend
suggested that I ask on the GNU Coreutils mailing list whether there
is interest in possibly adding `wronly` to the Coreutils project.
Hence my question:  is there a place for `wronly` in GNU Coreutils? If
so, I would be more than happy to work with maintainers to integrate
it into the Coreutils build process, standardize its source, and even
attempt to write a Windows port. Writing a Windows port is not
absolutely necessary, I know, but it's nice to be able to use all
Coreutils utilities in a Windows environment.

Let me know your thoughts,

Daniel