On Tue, Oct 11, 2022 at 01:32:43PM +0200, Janne Johansson wrote: > > On Mon, Oct 10, 2022 at 11:17:32AM -0600, Theo de Raadt wrote: > > > It's been explained a few times that being up-to-date is not an error. > > > It's a good thing, and no action is neccessary when up-to-date. > > > Any non-zero value indicates an error, that would include 2. You are > > > marking this as an error, when it isn't. > > > > It's been said that being up-to-date is not an error, but if it's been > > explained, I've failed to find an explanation. > > > > Usually, when a utility fails to perform its intended task, it gives an > > error. > > I don't personally care what exit code it throws, I only use the tool > > manually, I'd just like to know the rationale if anyone cares to > > elaborate. > > Simplest explanation is probably: > > ./some-program && do something on success > > If you understand this part of shell scripting, then you would see why > returning > 2 (or 1 or 3 or 102444) will throw off the logic, especially if 1 > means some kind > of error. > > As for "intended task", sysupgrade might be viewed as a tool to make > sure you have > the latest it knows about. If no upgrade is needed or the mirror is > old, then that task is done. > > Someone else might think it is a tool to stress the network and disk > by always downloading > things from the internet, and that it is a grave error if this can't > be done, but those people > would have a view that differs from the obsd devs idea of what to use > sysupgrade for. > > Also, if you replace your "mkdir /foo with missing /foo" with "install > -d /foo", you'd see it can > run twice without throwing errors. It makes sure a dir named foo is > created if not exists. > That is its task when run with -d. And you can && a command behind it > so it catches errors > if a file/pipe/socket is there instead. Or add -p to mkdir to get the > same behaviour. > > -- > May the most significant bit of your life be positive.
Aha. I didn't know install worked that way (though mkdir -p does too, now that I think of it). I guess my actual confusion was perhaps due to this behavior being implied whereas other utilities are rather explicit about it, at least in terms of man files. Thanks!
