I still keep both older and newer ed binaries around, Here is how ed changed, on a test case like those considered in this report:
$ old_ed --version GNU ed version 0.2 $ old_ed /tmp/gibberish.$RANDOM/ /tmp/gibberish.13085/: No such file or directory q $ $ new_ed --version GNU ed 1.22.3 Copyright (C) 1994 Andrew L. Moore. Copyright (C) 2025 Antonio Diaz Diaz. License GPLv2+: GNU GPL version 2 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html> This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. $ new_ed /tmp/gibberish.$RANDOM/ /tmp/gibberish.3673/: Is a directory $ I observe that not only did the error message change, but also the behavior changed. The old ed lets you know you asking to edit a path that open said didn't exist, and leaves you in the editor, in case you want to provide some text you might later try to write out, to a file by that name or whatever else you change that name to, within that ed session. The new ed issues an incorrect error message and exits. -- Paul Jackson [email protected]
