4 ms·

> My unix/linux box doesn't have overlapping software Not really true at all. find is especially heinous. "find ... -delete" is equivalent to "find ... -print0

> My unix/linux box doesn't have overlapping software Not really true at all. find is especially heinous. "find ... -delete" is equivalent to "find ... -print0 | xargs -0 rm --"

lloeki 16y ago
To me that does not count as a duplicate, but as a usability and scalability feature. * "find ... -delete" probably just calls unlink, just as rm does, which is a libc feature. No subshell spawned thus lean and fast. * "find ... -exec 'rm {}'" allows to run a command without xargs, but does not allows you to filter and transform the stream. Propably will spawn a subshell for each call. * "find ... -print0 | sed 'bar' | grep -v foo | frobznicate qux | xargs -0 rm --" is where the power lies. A few more subshells created. This, to me, shows that 'find' actually does what it should do, and allows you to choose the best way you can do it WRT the task at hand.
- rtaycher 16y ago
  and massive gui programs are?
vacri 16y ago
I would had thought a much simpler and more direct example of functional overlap would have been 'more' and 'less'...
- lloeki 16y ago
  'less' is actually an improved reimplementation of 'more'. On my Mac, for example, 'less' and 'more‘ are hardlinked: $ find /usr/bin -samefile /usr/bin/less /usr/bin/less /usr/bin/more And invoking 'less' as 'more' most probably makes less drop into a compatibility mode. Also, 'man more' brings you to the less(1) page, which contains the following snippet: Less is a program similar to more (1), but which allows backward movement in the file as well as forward movement. Also, less does not have to read the entire input file before starting, so with large input files it starts up faster than text editors like vi (1). Less uses termcap (or terminfo on some systems), so it can run on a variety of terminals. There is even limited support for hardcopy terminals. (On a hardcopy terminal, lines which should be printed at the top of the screen are prefixed with a caret.)

> My unix/linux box doesn't have overlapping software Not really true at all. find is especially heinous. "find ... -delete" is equivalent to "find ... -print0 | xargs -0 rm --"

lloeki 16y ago

To me that does not count as a duplicate, but as a usability and scalability feature. * "find ... -delete" probably just calls unlink, just as rm does, which is a libc feature. No subshell spawned thus lean and fast. * "find ... -exec 'rm {}'" allows to run a command without xargs, but does not allows you to filter and transform the stream. Propably will spawn a subshell for each call. * "find ... -print0 | sed 'bar' | grep -v foo | frobznicate qux | xargs -0 rm --" is where the power lies. A few more subshells created. This, to me, shows that 'find' actually does what it should do, and allows you to choose the best way you can do it WRT the task at hand.

rtaycher 16y ago
and massive gui programs are?

vacri 16y ago

I would had thought a much simpler and more direct example of functional overlap would have been 'more' and 'less'...

lloeki 16y ago
'less' is actually an improved reimplementation of 'more'. On my Mac, for example, 'less' and 'more‘ are hardlinked: $ find /usr/bin -samefile /usr/bin/less /usr/bin/less /usr/bin/more And invoking 'less' as 'more' most probably makes less drop into a compatibility mode. Also, 'man more' brings you to the less(1) page, which contains the following snippet: Less is a program similar to more (1), but which allows backward movement in the file as well as forward movement. Also, less does not have to read the entire input file before starting, so with large input files it starts up faster than text editors like vi (1). Less uses termcap (or terminfo on some systems), so it can run on a variety of terminals. There is even limited support for hardcopy terminals. (On a hardcopy terminal, lines which should be printed at the top of the screen are prefixed with a caret.)