Re: [PATCH][RFC] New 'true' program

[Ricardo Nabinger Sanchez]

Quoting  Felipe W Damasio <address@hidden>
Sent on  Tue, 23 Nov 2004 03:28:34 -0200

> Alfred M. Szmidt wrote:
> 
> >   So can you guys please consider this cleanup then?
> >
> >It would break international support.

I can't see how, as the binary ignores parameters like --help, even though
it is present in the man page.

> >
> >May one ask why you are so concerned about saving a few bytes?
> >  
> >
> 
> I think it is an outrage that a simple task like returning a code 
> indicating success has to take more than a few bytes.

More than just a few bytes:

$ /usr/bin/time true
0.01user 0.00system 0:00.02elapsed 41%CPU (0avgtext+0avgdata 0maxresident)k
0inputs+0outputs (134major+35minor)pagefaults 0swaps

I think that this is valid for the ``false'' program too:

$ /usr/bin/time false
Command exited with non-zero status 1
0.00user 0.02system 0:00.02elapsed 90%CPU (0avgtext+0avgdata 0maxresident)k
0inputs+0outputs (134major+35minor)pagefaults 0swaps

It's not a matter of just a few bytes of disk space, but a somewhat
considerable amount of system resources to ``do nothing, (in)successfully''.


Best regards.

-- 
Ricardo Nabinger Sanchez
GNU/Linux #140696 [http://counter.li.org]
Slackware Linux + FreeBSD

  Warning: 
    Trespassers will be shot.
    Survivors will be shot again.

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