GNU bug report logs - #8500
util: where am i

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

From: Panagiotis Tsiamis <ptsiamis <at> gmail.com>
To: bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org
Subject: util: where am i
Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2011 16:02:11 +0300

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

Request for adding one more feature on the utillity whoami.

The feature should be able to called by
"where am i" or "whereami"

And should locate:
a) System hostname
b) ip of the system
c) current working directory
d) anything else that could be usefull for identify where you are located
currently.

BR.

-- 
*Panayotis Tsiamis
Systems / Software Engineer*
*Tel: 0030 6977456436
E-Mail*: ptsiamis <at> gmail.com

[Message part 2 (text/html, inline)]

Message #8 received at 8500 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Bjartur Thorlacius <svartman95 <at> gmail.com>
To: Panagiotis Tsiamis <ptsiamis <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 8500 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#8500: util: where am i
Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2011 21:24:56 +0000

On 4/14/11, Panagiotis Tsiamis <ptsiamis <at> gmail.com> wrote:
> Request for adding one more feature on the utillity whoami.
>
> The feature should be able to called by
> "where am i" or "whereami"
>
> And should locate:
> a) System hostname
> b) ip of the system
> c) current working directory
> d) anything else that could be usefull for identify where you are located
> currently.
>
> BR.
>
I doubt that should be included in coreutils. I could see the utility
of such an utility, and think packagers of SSH servers could well
suggest it, but I can more easily imagine a number of installations
where `hostname;pwd` would be as good, if not better.

Message #11 received at 8500 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Bob Proulx <bob <at> proulx.com>
To: Panagiotis Tsiamis <ptsiamis <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 8500 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#8500: util: where am i
Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2011 15:48:20 -0600

severity 8500 wishlist
thanks

Panagiotis Tsiamis wrote:
> Request for adding one more feature on the utillity whoami.
> 
> The feature should be able to called by
> "where am i" or "whereami"
> 
> And should locate:
> a) System hostname

  $ hostname

> b) ip of the system

You tickled a pet issue of mine.  A host rarely has just one IP
address.  This would need to be a list of addresses.

  $ ip addr show | awk '/inet/{print$2}'

A host has a number of network interfaces and each network interface
has a number of IP addresses.  This results in a host potentially
having quite a few associated addresses!

On my network all simple hosts have four IP addresses.  A more
complicated host has seven IP addresses.  One of the most interesting
hosts has 17 IP addresses.

> c) current working directory

  $ pwd

> d) anything else that could be usefull for identify where you are located
> currently.

  $ gpslocation  # <-- Just joking here.

Bob

Message #16 received at 8500 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Panagiotis Tsiamis <ptsiamis <at> gmail.com>
To: Bjartur Thorlacius <svartman95 <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 8500 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#8500: util: where am i
Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2011 10:33:16 +0300

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

Dear Bjartur,

I don't dissagree about your opinion that involves ssh utillity to do this
job (it could possibly also keep a look of systems that you recently connect
also)
but together with ssh there also are rsh/rlogin, telnet,  and other remote
connection software that can be used from cli. I discuss the possibillity to
integrate such a command that keeps tracks of recent systems, current
system, system connection path (hostA->hostB->hostC) and distribute this
information accordingly to each system you connect/disconnect. If anyone has
furthermore ideas or is interested on a tool like this, hope will reply.

BR

2011/4/15 Bjartur Thorlacius <svartman95 <at> gmail.com>

> On 4/14/11, Panagiotis Tsiamis <ptsiamis <at> gmail.com> wrote:
> > Request for adding one more feature on the utillity whoami.
> >
> > The feature should be able to called by
> > "where am i" or "whereami"
> >
> > And should locate:
> > a) System hostname
> > b) ip of the system
> > c) current working directory
> > d) anything else that could be usefull for identify where you are located
> > currently.
> >
> > BR.
> >
> I doubt that should be included in coreutils. I could see the utility
> of such an utility, and think packagers of SSH servers could well
> suggest it, but I can more easily imagine a number of installations
> where `hostname;pwd` would be as good, if not better.
>



-- 
*Panayotis Tsiamis
Systems / Software Engineer*
*Tel: 0030 6977456436
E-Mail*: ptsiamis <at> gmail.com

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Message #19 received at 8500 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Erik Auerswald <auerswal <at> unix-ag.uni-kl.de>
To: ptsiamis <at> gmail.com
Cc: 8500 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, svartman95 <at> gmail.com
Subject: Re: bug#8500: util: where am i
Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2011 13:01:42 +0200

Hi,

please don't top post, thanks. And keep on reading for inline comments. ;-)

On 04/15/2011 09:33 AM, Panagiotis Tsiamis wrote:
> 2011/4/15 Bjartur Thorlacius<svartman95 <at> gmail.com>
>> On 4/14/11, Panagiotis Tsiamis<ptsiamis <at> gmail.com>  wrote:
>>> Request for adding one more feature on the utillity whoami.
>>>
>>> The feature should be able to called by
>>> "where am i" or "whereami"
>>>
>>> And should locate:
>>> a) System hostname

hostname
uname -n

>>> b) ip of the system

Bob had an excellent example:
ip addr | awk '/inet/{print $2}'

Of course this might be local and private addresses, not the IP address 
used for your internet connection.

>>> c) current working directory

pwd

>>> d) anything else that could be usefull for identify where you are located
>>> currently.

Most GNU/Linux distributions configure the shell prompt to display the 
usually helpful info, i.e. user name, host name, current working 
directory. Some people use color (or even blinking) to highlight working 
as a privileged user (root).

>> I doubt that should be included in coreutils. I could see the utility
>> of such an utility, and think packagers of SSH servers could well
>> suggest it, but I can more easily imagine a number of installations
>> where `hostname;pwd` would be as good, if not better.

Most shell configurations provide this info all the time.

> I don't dissagree about your opinion that involves ssh utillity to do this
> job (it could possibly also keep a look of systems that you recently connect
> also)
> but together with ssh there also are rsh/rlogin, telnet,  and other remote
> connection software that can be used from cli.

You can use 'who', 'w', 'last', 'pinky' or 'finger' to find out from 
where you (and others) are connected (and some additional info as well).

> I discuss the possibillity to
> integrate such a command that keeps tracks of recent systems, current
> system, system connection path (hostA->hostB->hostC) and distribute this
> information accordingly to each system you connect/disconnect. If anyone has
> furthermore ideas or is interested on a tool like this, hope will reply.

This kind of tracking functionality should be strictly opt-in.

All in all I don't see a need for a 'whereami' utility at all.

Regards,
Erik

Message #22 received at 8500 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Bob Proulx <bob <at> proulx.com>
To: 8500 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, Panagiotis Tsiamis <ptsiamis <at> gmail.com>
Subject: Re: bug#8500: util: where am i
Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2011 14:42:53 -0600

Erik Auerswald wrote:
> uname -n

A problem with uname is that traditionally this would truncate names
to eight characters.  (I once had a hostname "aphrodite" and it would
always emit "aphrodit".)  The uname structures are really problematic.
I recommend avoiding them.

> All in all I don't see a need for a 'whereami' utility at all.

For what it is worth I agree.  What is available is already available.
And what isn't available such as gps location isn't possible to be
available and would have severe privacy concerns if it were.

Bob

P.S. I have always wanted a utility to send lightning bolts out of the
keyboard just like what is shown in the movies when someone is
repelling a computer attack.  But I don't think I will ever get that
one either.

Message #25 received at 8500 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Panagiotis Tsiamis <ptsiamis <at> gmail.com>
To: Bob Proulx <bob <at> proulx.com>
Cc: 8500 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#8500: util: where am i
Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2011 10:49:41 +0300

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

Hey bob,

You are really funny :)
In which movie you saw that thing ?


Anyway, if all of you still agree that the old fashion cli that is common
legacy of unix back to 60"s must continue as is and nothing new
and clever should arise after 50 years i have nothing more to say. And yes i
believe that having an awkward command line based only on "cutted" words
and system calls based on 60"s where K&R wouldn't have enough resources to
make them, somewhat clearer i should stop right now the discussion.

Hope there are some people that are realising the fact that the unix cli
after 50 years is like a dinosaur. Yet a powerfull dinosaur but still a
dino.
We could have a more powerfull cli based in more human logic (like sql
syntax maybe) more integrated logfiles that could easily be read and
filtered out by one utillity (why everytime you need to search in logfiles,
you end in a grep "pat" log|awk '{print blah}'|sed -e 's/dasd/dsa/g'|....).
And dont stick to the example of syslog and say this is the syslog program
that is responsible for this. I thought that gnu is creating a unix like
operating system that is not unix. But all i see is something that is a lot
of  old fashion and legacy unix. What is been really changed from the old
fashion unix shell? Oh yes, the list directory command has colors, the get
regular expression and print command has recursive search. Wow, but i could
easy use a find . -type f |exec grep -i {} \; .. so why put this feature to
gnu grep? Why not. Why to create an integrated and easy command to check
some things and  see where i am? why not.

You can leave it be dino for ever or you can evolve. Your choise.

BR :)

2011/4/15 Bob Proulx <bob <at> proulx.com>

> Erik Auerswald wrote:
> > uname -n
>
> A problem with uname is that traditionally this would truncate names
> to eight characters.  (I once had a hostname "aphrodite" and it would
> always emit "aphrodit".)  The uname structures are really problematic.
> I recommend avoiding them.
>
> > All in all I don't see a need for a 'whereami' utility at all.
>
> For what it is worth I agree.  What is available is already available.
> And what isn't available such as gps location isn't possible to be
> available and would have severe privacy concerns if it were.
>
> Bob
>
> P.S. I have always wanted a utility to send lightning bolts out of the
> keyboard just like what is shown in the movies when someone is
> repelling a computer attack.  But I don't think I will ever get that
> one either.
>



-- 
*Panayotis Tsiamis
Systems / Software Engineer*
*Tel: 0030 6977456436
E-Mail*: ptsiamis <at> gmail.com

[Message part 2 (text/html, inline)]

Message #28 received at 8500 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Cédric Arbogast <arbogast.cedric <at> gmail.com>
To: Panagiotis Tsiamis <ptsiamis <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 8500 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, Bob Proulx <bob <at> proulx.com>
Subject: Re: bug#8500: util: where am i
Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2011 11:23:51 +0200

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

Hello,

You argue about the "old fashioned" way of the GNU tools without regard on
compatibility, compaction and efficiency requirements.

A "whereim" command implies providing a functionnality already provided by
other tools. Multiple tools for  the same things is, imho, not the best
choice in the case of the core tools.

GNU is not Unix, but this also means that you can do things yourself.

Make a "whereim" command, make publicly available your version of the
coreutils with it or the corresponding patch.

Time will let us know if it was a pertinent move.

Regards, Cedric.

On Mon, Apr 18, 2011 at 9:49 AM, Panagiotis Tsiamis <ptsiamis <at> gmail.com>wrote:

> Hey bob,
>
> You are really funny :)
> In which movie you saw that thing ?
>
>
> Anyway, if all of you still agree that the old fashion cli that is common
> legacy of unix back to 60"s must continue as is and nothing new
> and clever should arise after 50 years i have nothing more to say. And yes
> i
> believe that having an awkward command line based only on "cutted" words
> and system calls based on 60"s where K&R wouldn't have enough resources to
> make them, somewhat clearer i should stop right now the discussion.
>
> Hope there are some people that are realising the fact that the unix cli
> after 50 years is like a dinosaur. Yet a powerfull dinosaur but still a
> dino.
> We could have a more powerfull cli based in more human logic (like sql
> syntax maybe) more integrated logfiles that could easily be read and
> filtered out by one utillity (why everytime you need to search in logfiles,
> you end in a grep "pat" log|awk '{print blah}'|sed -e 's/dasd/dsa/g'|....).
> And dont stick to the example of syslog and say this is the syslog program
> that is responsible for this. I thought that gnu is creating a unix like
> operating system that is not unix. But all i see is something that is a lot
> of  old fashion and legacy unix. What is been really changed from the old
> fashion unix shell? Oh yes, the list directory command has colors, the get
> regular expression and print command has recursive search. Wow, but i could
> easy use a find . -type f |exec grep -i {} \; .. so why put this feature to
> gnu grep? Why not. Why to create an integrated and easy command to check
> some things and  see where i am? why not.
>
> You can leave it be dino for ever or you can evolve. Your choise.
>
> BR :)
>
> 2011/4/15 Bob Proulx <bob <at> proulx.com>
>
> > Erik Auerswald wrote:
> > > uname -n
> >
> > A problem with uname is that traditionally this would truncate names
> > to eight characters.  (I once had a hostname "aphrodite" and it would
> > always emit "aphrodit".)  The uname structures are really problematic.
> > I recommend avoiding them.
> >
> > > All in all I don't see a need for a 'whereami' utility at all.
> >
> > For what it is worth I agree.  What is available is already available.
> > And what isn't available such as gps location isn't possible to be
> > available and would have severe privacy concerns if it were.
> >
> > Bob
> >
> > P.S. I have always wanted a utility to send lightning bolts out of the
> > keyboard just like what is shown in the movies when someone is
> > repelling a computer attack.  But I don't think I will ever get that
> > one either.
> >
>
>
>
> --
> *Panayotis Tsiamis
> Systems / Software Engineer*
> *Tel: 0030 6977456436
> E-Mail*: ptsiamis <at> gmail.com
>

[Message part 2 (text/html, inline)]

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