GNU bug report logs - #69788
zcat, zgrep and other (g)zutils' names

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Package: gzip;

Reported by: wrotycz <wrotycz <at> wir.pl>

Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2024 02:48:02 UTC

Severity: normal

Merged with 69789

Done: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>

Bug is archived. No further changes may be made.

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Report forwarded to bug-gzip <at> gnu.org:
bug#69788; Package gzip. (Thu, 14 Mar 2024 02:48:02 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.
Acknowledgement sent to wrotycz <wrotycz <at> wir.pl>:
New bug report received and forwarded. Copy sent to bug-gzip <at> gnu.org. (Thu, 14 Mar 2024 02:48:02 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

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

From: wrotycz <wrotycz <at> wir.pl>
To: bug-gzip <bug-gzip <at> gnu.org>
Subject: zcat, zgrep and other (g)zutils' names
Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2024 21:05:22 +0100

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]
zcat, z grep and other (g)zutils   Hello,  I noticed, not for the first time that zcat, zgrep and rest of the utils are ambiguously named. Neither gzip nor .gz does not begin with &#39;z&#39;. All other compressors call their utils by the name of extension, like xzcat, lzcat, zstdgrep and so on. This is more logical and less confusing.  To make things worse, *nix Compress produces .Z files and that could be using &#39;z&#39; as prefix for the names other its tools. It doesn&#39;t have ones but that&#39;s the point - it would be logical to use zcat for a compress&#39; tool name, and &#39;gzcat&#39; fo gzip cat tool.  And the last and not least, these zXXX names collide with zutils&#39; names, which are more &#39;generic&#39;, in a sense that they serve as a tools for many compressors, not only for gzip.   So, for the reasons mentioned above and to avoid confusion I propose to rename zcat, zgrep, etc., to gzcat, gzgrep, etc.  Hope you understand the request.   Regards  wrotycz

[Message part 2 (text/html, inline)]
bug closed, send any further explanations to 69788 <at> debbugs.gnu.org and wrotycz <wrotycz <at> wir.pl> Request was from Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu> to control <at> debbugs.gnu.org. (Thu, 14 Mar 2024 05:44:01 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.
Merged 69788 69789. Request was from Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu> to control <at> debbugs.gnu.org. (Thu, 14 Mar 2024 05:44:01 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.
bug archived. Request was from Debbugs Internal Request <help-debbugs <at> gnu.org> to internal_control <at> debbugs.gnu.org. (Thu, 11 Apr 2024 11:24:40 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.
This bug report was last modified 1 year and 70 days ago.

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