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As a Linux user I often get annoyed when I try to use MacOS and some of the commands differ. For example, the find command on Linux, er GNU, doesn't require a p
by patwolf 5y ago
As a Linux user I often get annoyed when I try to use MacOS and some of the commands differ. For example, the find command on Linux, er GNU, doesn't require a path, but MacOS does.
I always blamed MacOS/BSD for just being different, but now I know that it's GNU that is different. I'm not sure what to think about it though--I do like the idea of compatibility with a standard, but I also don't like standards to hold back innovation.
- jhbadger 5y agoSome of it is GNU being different, but you also have to understand the difference between BSD and AT&T System V UNIX. Many GNU tools are closer to the standard AT&T behavior than BSD. BSD was the original nonstandard userland.
- spijdar 5y agoOld UNIX was never really that beholden to standards. In practice, the de facto and sometimes "de jure" standards were just based on whatever was the most common variant of UNIX, which for a while was Solaris (it's oversimplifying, but POSIX is kind of like "standardized Solaris"), but is becoming GNU/Linux. Commercial unixes "based on" SysVR2/3/4 had plenty of "non-standard" behavior and extensions, it was how you differentiated your product. You support POSIX compatibility to enable portability if you need it, but you differentiate with your extensions or "weird behavior". GNU was no different. The BSDs just have their own tradition, one that's older than POSIX.