>> Also, at least on arch linux, egrep has been replaced by a shell >> script that warns the user that egrep is deprecated, > Why did gnu do that? What's wrong with egrep? It's been part of the > linux command line as long as I've been using linux.
Probably as long as Linux has been mature enough to have a command line. I've been using Unix variants since BSD 4.1c (briefly, replaced with BSD 4.2 once the university I was at could get a copy), and I'm fairly sure egrep has been there the whole time. > In this case, the question making it non-obvious (to me) is how > should I RESPOND to the FSF being an obvious bully over an aesthetic > issue that breaks backwards compatibility with an uncountable number > of scripts. Well, personally, my reaction is to say "that's on them" and continue using - and shipping, if applicable - egrep. If you want to be particularly nice to your users, add a documentation note saying that some Linux distros seem to think egrep is deprecated but that you see no reason to mollycoddle bullies who think they can pull that sort of stunt just because they're big. /~\ The ASCII Mouse \ / Ribbon Campaign X Against HTML mo...@rodents-montreal.org / \ Email! 7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39 4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27 4B _______________________________________________ Toybox mailing list Toybox@lists.landley.net http://lists.landley.net/listinfo.cgi/toybox-landley.net
