From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: References: Date: Mon, 5 Oct 2009 09:13:10 -0700 Message-ID: Subject: Re: [9fans] mishandling empty lists - let's fix it From: Russ Cox To: Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs <9fans@9fans.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Topicbox-Message-UUID: 7ef69756-ead5-11e9-9d60-3106f5b1d025 > =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0cat * > does nothing and wouldn't be an error > at all. worse, if you follow this to its logical conclusion, any word that isn't an actual file name must be a failed glob expression and should be discarded. so grep -n would be the same as grep, unless you have a file named -n. to the original poster: there's definitely a logical consistency to your original proposal. others have pointed out specific flaws, but the fundamental issue is that it's just not the same system anymore. russ