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0 pointstitzer6y ago0 comments

> It would have been better to rename it.

Maybe. It's worthwhile pointing out that "mv x" with no second argument is an error:

  mv: missing destination file operand after 'x'
  Try 'mv --help' for more information.

I also don't have the habit of letting people type in my shell, so there's that.

TBH I really don't understand the level of pedantry (and frankly, sheer outrage) in this thread at all. It sucks to be on the receiving end of such disapproval over something so trivial. Let this person do what they want! It's a neat little hack. It also inspired me to see what more I could do with 'read'--something I have ignored for 20 years.

0 comments

6 comments · 2 top-level

bb886y ago· 4 in thread

    $ mv --help
    Usage: file [OPTION...] [FILE...]
    Determine type of FILEs.

So mv --help now returns the help for the `file` command. You're right, that's not worth warning people at all.

God help any user that's on a shared system whose sysadmin thinks this is a good idea putting in the default /etc/profile.

To be fair, I don't feel like I'm being pedantic. I'm anti-footgun.

titzerOP6y ago

> sysadmin thinks this is a good idea putting in the default /etc/profile

Well that, I agree, would be dumb.

kilpikaarna6y ago

You could just filter out anything that begins with a dash and pass it to mv. It seems like mv always interprets that as an option anyway, even if you have a file named --help or whatever.

I like this kind of thing! Minimal code but very elegant from a UX perspective. The oh but you could just mv foo-{bar,baz}.txt crowd is completely missing the point.

kelnos6y ago

> The oh but you could just mv foo-{bar,baz}.txt crowd is completely missing the point.

I disagree. I think a better way to think about things is, "can I accomplish my goal most of the time using the standard tools without writing something custom?" I'll be the first to admit that there are a ton of things in the shell and in coreutils that I don't know about. I bet I've written several scripts over the years with custom functionality that could be replaced with standard tools I didn't know about. That's the thing that I want to avoid.

bb886y ago

I love bash. I love unix/linux. I love that bash gives you that kind of power. I love the fact that he figured out a nifty way of doing this.

But please please please please with all the love of America, baseball, and apple pie, don't change the default behavior of basic unix commands.

Otherwise you force people into writing nonsense like this:

MV=/usr/bin/mv

${MV} ${FILE1} ${FILE2}

kelnos6y ago

> (and frankly, sheer outrage)

I think you're reading way too much into what I and others are saying. Honestly I'm finding being misunderstood and mis-characterized as angry to be the only thing that's bothering me.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

6 comments · 2 top-level

bb886y ago· 4 in thread

    $ mv --help
    Usage: file [OPTION...] [FILE...]
    Determine type of FILEs.

So mv --help now returns the help for the `file` command. You're right, that's not worth warning people at all.

God help any user that's on a shared system whose sysadmin thinks this is a good idea putting in the default /etc/profile.

To be fair, I don't feel like I'm being pedantic. I'm anti-footgun.

titzerOP6y ago

> sysadmin thinks this is a good idea putting in the default /etc/profile

Well that, I agree, would be dumb.

kilpikaarna6y ago

You could just filter out anything that begins with a dash and pass it to mv. It seems like mv always interprets that as an option anyway, even if you have a file named --help or whatever.

I like this kind of thing! Minimal code but very elegant from a UX perspective. The oh but you could just mv foo-{bar,baz}.txt crowd is completely missing the point.

kelnos6y ago

> The oh but you could just mv foo-{bar,baz}.txt crowd is completely missing the point.

bb886y ago

I love bash. I love unix/linux. I love that bash gives you that kind of power. I love the fact that he figured out a nifty way of doing this.

But please please please please with all the love of America, baseball, and apple pie, don't change the default behavior of basic unix commands.

Otherwise you force people into writing nonsense like this:

MV=/usr/bin/mv

${MV} ${FILE1} ${FILE2}

kelnos6y ago

> (and frankly, sheer outrage)

I think you're reading way too much into what I and others are saying. Honestly I'm finding being misunderstood and mis-characterized as angry to be the only thing that's bothering me.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse