On Sun, Aug 09, 2015 at 03:58:27PM +0200, Andreas Henriksson wrote:
> Please note:
> 
>             0     Messages are allowed.
> 
>             1     Messages are not allowed.
> 
>            >1     An error has occurred.

Small clarification: The error codes are not really the problem.

The problem is that those error codes are in effect
not only when "mesg" is invoked alone, but also when
it's invoked with an argument: mesg y|n.

For the case where an argument is used, we don't really want an error
telling us the state after the mesg command, as in 99% of cases we
already know the final state: It's given by the argument itself!

> I think it's very unlikely that util-linux wants to break
> their compatibility in favour of being compatible with
> the odd implementation previously used in Debian.

Well. In this case, the only compatibility that will break is that
those who write

mesg n || true

will finally be able to remove the "|| true" part.

Constructs like this:

if mesg 2> /dev/null; then
  echo mesg is y
else
  echo mesg is n
fi

would not be affected by the proposed behaviour change.

> If you feel like arguing your opinions on the upstream mailing list
> then please go ahead. (I think it's much better if you talk directly
> instead of passing discussion via me as a messenger.)

Ok, If you think that's better, I will do.

Thanks.


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