>>Sure, except this isn't a script.  It's in a file named Bash_aliases
>>contained in a directory named examples/startup-files.  It was clearly
>>intended to be copied into one's ~/.bashrc file (or to be dotted in
>>from there).

>>Including it in your ~/.bashrc would effectively mask the real seq(1)
>>command in all of your interactive shells.  A naive user might not even
>>understand that this is happening.

Agreed that masking the real "seq" command would be a Very Bad Thing.

The issue of what/how to name auxiliary functions is real and probably
deserving of its own thread (in [email protected], not here).  I have
a solution that has worked well for me, but I'd be interested to hear
what others have to say on the subject.


> IMHO a naive user wouldn't know about examples/startup-files in the
> bash source tree. In my case even a relatively sophisticated user
> didn't know about it. Bad examples should be excised. I think
> general /etc/[bash[_.]*|profile] and /etc/skel/ file suggestions
> should be left to the distro maintainers.

The problem is that code gets bandied about.  Somebody sees it in that
file (Bash_aliases) and copies it to his .bashrc (or whatever).  Some
other, less sophisticated, user happens to see it and catches it from him, etc.
It becomes a virus.

That's what I think many thread posters are really concerned about.


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