On Sat, March 22, 2008 11:02 pm, Gus Wirth wrote:
> Lan Barnes wrote:
>> Why why WHY do programmers send informational messages to stderr? It
>> makes
>> it really difficult to script calls to the program that check for
>> errors.
>> What is it about the "err" in stderr that they don't understand?
>
> Because there are only two normal outputs: stdout and stderr. Results of
> normal program output go to stdout, everything else goes to stderr.
>
> If you have a particular program that you want to mention, perhaps you
> can set a logging output, or maybe suppress status messages in some
> manner, either from the command line or through an environment variable.
> Many programs have a "quiet" option that suppresses everything except
> real error messages.
>
> Gus
>

OK I'm seeing it.

Anyway, I have alternatives.

<grumble> but whatever happened to the *nix tradition of "return silently
on success"?

-- 
Lan Barnes

SCM Analyst              Linux Guy
Tcl/Tk Enthusiast        Biodiesel Brewer


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