Re: [grep-2.5] Option '--program-prefix=g' behaves incorrect

[Paul Eggert]

> From: address@hidden (Stepan Kasal)
> Date: Thu, 30 May 2002 09:42:32 +0000 (UTC)

> > If you compare the problem with GNU "ls" vs. "vdir", then it looks like
> > ls has already solved it by creating several copies:
> > 
> > -r-xr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  64496 17 Nov  2000 /usr/local/bin/dir
> > -r-xr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  64496 17 Nov  2000 /usr/local/bin/gdir
> > -r-xr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  64496 17 Nov  2000 /usr/local/bin/vdir

The copies are not identical (at least, not in recent versions of
GNU fileutils).

> I still don't understand why are the guidelines aginst the old
> symlinks variant.  Could someone please explain me where this idea
> comes from?

http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards_16.html#SEC16

says:

Please don't make the behavior of a utility depend on the name used to
invoke it. It is useful sometimes to make a link to a utility with a
different name, and that should not change what it does.

Instead, use a run time option or a compilation switch or both to
select among the alternate behaviors.