-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Jari Aalto wrote: >> Thanks, but "File exists" is just the English version of the >> strerror(EEXIST) string from the C library. > > "Target exists" would be more generic if message is based on the EEXIST > error code.
Considering that, as Jim points out just below, directories and symlinks are also files, how would "target" be any better? "File" is quite generic enough, without being as vague in meaning as "target" is (and I thought you were arguing for more specificity?) (Jim:) >> For one thing, in discussing file system objects, "file" is often >> used to refer to a generic object, be it symlink, block device, >> regular file, directory, etc. ... >> I'm inclined to say no, but there is precedent for examining the file >> type. The prompt you see when using rm's -i tells you about the type >> of the file it might remove. Sure; but then, it's asking whether you want to destroy something; the more information about what you're potentially obliterating, the better. In this case, mkdir's telling you it can't create a directory because something else is already there. Does it really matter what specific thing is there? Perhaps it's a directory, perhaps it's a file; it doesn't really matter, because regardless of what it is, you're not going to clobber it with a directory. Perhaps, in addition to performing an lstat(), mkdir should go ahead and ls -lR it (if it's a directory), or page it for you (if it's a text file), so you can make the most-informed decision as to whether to remove it and try again. :) At any rate, I suspect the realm into which this suggestion falls was probably clarified, once it was accompanied with the suggestion that mkdir generate a logfile. Given that there's no historical precedent for it, the message is accurate as it stands, and no one has established what benefit a change could provide, it seems to me that the burden of proof is a long way from being met. - -- Micah J. Cowan Programmer, musician, typesetting enthusiast, gamer... http://micah.cowan.name/ -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFHhIbd7M8hyUobTrERAqMFAJ0ds6kGhU8anYer1nEZPtQIjZHn0ACeLcSn EKM4zbKQecQmvjLrCxvXf7Y= =fK8D -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ Bug-coreutils mailing list Bug-coreutils@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bug-coreutils
