Package: procps Version: 1:3.2.8-2 Severity: wishlist X-Debbugs-CC: mo...@mozai.com;volker.maib...@eberspaecher.com
Thank you for maintaining procps. A suggestion: "killall -v Foo" means "kill process Foo, and print verbose output". Therefore many users think that "pkill -v Foo" means the same thing.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] It doesn't. It kills all processes except Foo. This tends to cause harm. Please follow the Rule of Least Surprise. Don't allow "-v" to mean the more destructive of its two possible meanings. Instead, please rename the "-v" option to some other letter. Not "-i" for "invert": killall uses "-i" to mean "interactive". And preferably not "-L": skill uses that to List all possible signals. Use some other letter. Preferably also make pkill -v print a special error message telling you the new way to negate your criteria. Please change pgrep too, so that its option names will match pkill's. ^ [1]. "It's ... good to know that "pkill -v" doesn't give you verbose output". --http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/7vkpi/whats_the_worst_mistake_youve_ever_made_at_your/c07j2yv ^ [2]. "Just assuming that a [-v] option stands for --verbose. Yep, most of the time. But not on a [pkill] command." --http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/my-10-unix-command-line-mistakes.html#comment-149235 ^ [3]. "I used that once to kill all evolution processes on my machine: 'pkill -v evolution' ... believe me, next time I will read the man-pages before I try an unknown option :-)." --http://www.mail-archive.com/ads...@vm.marist.edu/msg62476.html ^ [4]. "Note to self: the '-v' in 'pkill -v $pid' does not mean --verbose." --http://www.df7cb.de/blog/2007/pkill.html ^ [5]. "It turns out 'pkill -v x' is NOT 'verbose'; rather, it's 'kill all processes except x'. Kind of a bummer!" --http://twitter.com/kellyterryjones/status/4112024256 ^ [6]. "`pkill -v rsync` does NOT mean 'kill all rsync processes and be verbose about it.' <shame>hangs head</shame>" --http://twitter.com/mozai/status/5240550425 ^ [7]. Many more examples are available if you do a Google search for [ "pkill -v" ]. -- Jason Spiro: software/web developer, packager, trainer, IT consultant. I support Linux, UNIX, Windows, and more. Contact me to discuss your needs. +1 (416) 992-3445 / www.jspiro.com -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-bugs-dist-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
