Please DO use "/bin/test" as a command name
Ron Wessels
ron at uthub.UUCP
Mon Dec 9 17:51:45 AEST 1985
>From: ian at utcs.uucp
>Subject: Please do NOT use "/bin/test" as a command name
>Message-ID: <1019 at utcs.uucp>
>
> No, no, no. Do not use absolute paths for test, mv, cp, or
> anything else. Least of all in shell files. ...
> ....it violates the
> portability principle: UNIX uses the PATH environment variable
> to find programs, rather than making the user specify full path names
> for programs. This allows you to write your own. ...
> ...
> You don't know what might motivate me to have my own version of rm
> ...
There's one small problem with that, Ian. People writing "portable"
shell files don't know the behaviour of *your* rm (for example). What
flags does it take? Does it support the same ones as /bin/rm? Does it
behave similarly? I know some people that move rm'ed files to their own
private pergatory, in case they ever want them back. Others have their
own "rm" that does a "/bin/rm -i". A lot of otherwise-correct shell
files will behave very strangely if they use this non-standard version.
In short, /bin/rm is the only one that the shell-file writer can trust
to execute as s/he expects, and so should be the one invoked.
--
Ron Wessels Computer Systems Research Institute University of Toronto
UUCP: {decvax,floyd,ihnp4,linus,utzoo,uw-beaver}!utcsri!ron
CSNET: ron at Toronto
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