Hrvoje Niksic <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> "Eddy Thilleman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>
> > Wget sends its output to standard error. Why is that?
>
> "It seemed like a good idea."
>
> The rationale behind it is that Wget's "output" is not real output,
> more a progress indication thingie. The real output is when you
> specify `-O -', and that goes to stdout.
>
> Francois Pinard once suggested that Wget prints its progress output to
> stdout, except when `-O -' is specified, when progress should go to
> stderr. This is a bit harder to document, but is much better at
> meeting the users' expectations and not violating the Principle of
> Least Surprise.
I'd say that's arguable. I think it'd be more surprising for the diagnostic
output to jump from file descriptor to file descriptor depending on what
options you happened to use than for it to just be on stderr and always be
there.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Dan Harkless | To help prevent SPAM contamination,
GNU Wget co-maintainer | please do not mention this email
http://sunsite.dk/wget/ | address in Usenet posts -- thank you.
