From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.0 required=5.0 tests=MAILING_LIST_MULTI, RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: (qmail 2487 invoked from network); 25 Jun 2020 01:56:30 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (45.79.103.53) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 25 Jun 2020 01:56:30 -0000 Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 27E079459C; Thu, 25 Jun 2020 11:56:27 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id F30DF9459B; Thu, 25 Jun 2020 11:55:37 +1000 (AEST) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id AD07A9459B; Thu, 25 Jun 2020 11:55:34 +1000 (AEST) X-Greylist: delayed 315 seconds by postgrey-1.36 at minnie.tuhs.org; Thu, 25 Jun 2020 11:55:30 AEST Received: from outgoing.mit.edu (outgoing-auth-1.mit.edu [18.9.28.11]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 7DB869459A for ; Thu, 25 Jun 2020 11:55:30 +1000 (AEST) Received: from callcc.thunk.org (c-73-38-96-60.hsd1.ma.comcast.net [73.38.96.60]) (authenticated bits=0) (User authenticated as tytso@ATHENA.MIT.EDU) by outgoing.mit.edu (8.14.7/8.12.4) with ESMTP id 05P1oARG018352 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 bits=256 verify=NOT); Wed, 24 Jun 2020 21:50:10 -0400 Received: by callcc.thunk.org (Postfix, from userid 15806) id 00718420830; Wed, 24 Jun 2020 21:50:09 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 24 Jun 2020 21:50:09 -0400 From: "Theodore Y. Ts'o" To: Bakul Shah , Rob Pike , The Unix Heritage Society mailing list Message-ID: <20200625015009.GB4655@mit.edu> References: <7wsgewophe.fsf@junk.nocrew.org> <10160f8c-62a3-014b-43a1-65025f27cde5@mhorton.net> <20200622162406.GA48733@clarinet.employees.org> <0F78CB9D-870B-4008-B975-23756EFC6F83@iitbombay.org> <20200622224301.kdouj%steffen@sdaoden.eu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20200622224301.kdouj%steffen@sdaoden.eu> Subject: Re: [TUHS] Origins and life of the pg pager X-BeenThere: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.26 Precedence: list List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org Sender: "TUHS" On Tue, Jun 23, 2020 at 12:43:01AM +0200, Steffen Nurpmeso wrote: > #?0|kent:steffen$ pkginfo -o `command -v col` > Package File > util-linux usr/bin/col > > states > > /* > * This command is deprecated. The utility is in maintenance mode, > * meaning we keep them in source tree for backward compatibility > * only. Do not waste time making this command better, unless the > * fix is about security or other very critical issue. > * > * See Documentation/deprecated.txt for more information. > */ I'll note that the Austin Group / The Open Group marked those commands as LEGACY[1] in the Single Unix Specification V2 in 1997: The utilities in the table below are marked LEGACY. Various factors may have contributed to the decision to class a utility LEGACY. Application writers should not use functionality marked LEGACY. If a migration path exists, advice is given to application developers regarding alternative means of obtaining similar functionality. This information may be found in the APPLICATION USAGE sections on the relevant pages. No requirement beyond that which was in effect at the time that these utilities were marked LEGACY shall be applied to these utilities. calendar cancel cc col cpio cu dircmp dis egrep fgrep line lint lpstat mail pack pcat pg spell sum tar unpack uulog uuname uupick uuto [1] https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/7908799/xcu/intro.html#tag_001_003_003 The quote from the Single Unix Specification: "No requirement beyond that which was in effect at the time that these utilities were marked LEGACY shall be applied to these utilities." is not that different from "Do not waste time making this command better, unless the fix is about security or other very critical issue." And while I'm sure the Linux haters will be happy to try to blame Linux for the decision to declare pg, col, et.al as "legacy", in 1997 The Open Group was hardly filled with Linux developers; '97 predates IBM and Oracle declaring their support for Linux (1998), the publication of "The Cathedral and the Bazaar (also 1998), the start of the GNOME project (1999), Red Hat Enterprise Linux (first released in 2002), and Ubuntu Linux (2004). - Ted P.S. Of course, the fact that the The Open Group tried to convince the world to stop using tar and cpio in favor to pax seems to be a strong indication that they forgot the lesson of King Canute. :-)