On 4/28/05, Bob Proulx <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > > > #ls as
> > > > af
> > > > #ls -l as
> > > > lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 2 Apr 27 19:38 as -> ad
Note that af (a file) does not equal as (a symlink). Let's look at
the man page:
-l use a long listing format
Note that it says nothing about not dereferencing symlinks. IMHO it
should, or the standard should be changed.
> ls as
> af
>
> ls -F as
> as@
Wow, that is wrong also :-). -F is documented:
-F, --classify
append indicator (one of */=@|) to entries
Again it says nothing about not dereferencing symlinks.
> That would break standards conformance and existing practice. That
You're right. I am not going to change the standard, so please
document -l and -F more completely. :-) i.e., please say that they
do not dereference symlinks.
I did not know that the standard was (IMHO of course) broken. Thanks.
> > around the first moon landing has either you or me very confused.
>
> But symlinks were added to the system much later. They were not
Not surprising, although I did not know that. I meant it
hyperbolically, not literally, actually. Misleading on my part.
> This is not an either this or that situation. It is not miai.
It is to somebody who thinks that long listings and changing whether
dereferencing is done should be orthogonal options. Although my view
is nonstandard, having ls and ls -l both dereference or both not
dereference are orthogonal solutions.
My honorable opponent (the standard) had one changed (in my view, from
what it should be) but not the other (which one it is depends on
whether you favor dereferencing both or not dereferencing both). I
must now go in the place where my opponent did not, by fixing the
standard in either direction. We call that miai. Yes, one direction
is probably better than the other, but it was just a joke (as I
documented :-)). Is miai always exactly symmetrical, anyway?
I do know about the other related options.
> This is not a Debian bug. I suggest this bug be closed.
Even if you end up agreeing with me that ls -l should mention that it
doesn't dereference? (Not a rhetorical question.)
