Re: Could we use gunzip -c instead of zcat?
Yves Arrouye writes: Yves> Hello, I'd like to suggest that scripts, debian.rules etc... use Yves> gunzip -c instead of zcat when the intent is to get the contents of a Yves> gzipped file on stdout. No way. Yves> This is because if binaries from a BSD compress package (not Yves> necessarily built with compress-package) will make a true zcat Yves> available on the system, which of course cannot handle gzipped files. That's why we should not do this. Gzip's zcat supersedes and replaces compress' zcat as it deals with both compression formats. compress' zcat can only uncompressed compressed files, but not gzipped ones. Why should we cripple our system? Come on, Yves, it's a historic fact: compress is dead. As proprietary standards should be. No reason a GNU/Linux system should try to change this. We have (gzip's) zcat and gunzip to deal with it's dead bodies. And maybe your compress installer to create a few more skeletons though I still don't know why we need this. -- Dirk Eddelb"uttel http://qed.econ.queensu.ca/~edd
Re: Could we use gunzip -c instead of zcat?
> I'd like to suggest that scripts, debian.rules etc... use gunzip -c instead > of zcat when the intent is to get the contents of a gzipped file on stdout. > This is because if binaries from a BSD compress package (not necessarily > built with compress-package) will make a true zcat available on the system, > which of course cannot handle gzipped files. Calling "gzip -dc" would be an even better solution. Brian ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] ) --- In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they're not.
Could we use gunzip -c instead of zcat?
Hello, I'd like to suggest that scripts, debian.rules etc... use gunzip -c instead of zcat when the intent is to get the contents of a gzipped file on stdout. This is because if binaries from a BSD compress package (not necessarily built with compress-package) will make a true zcat available on the system, which of course cannot handle gzipped files. IMO, zcat means `cat a compressed (.Z) file', because that's what it does for years. The fact that /bin/zcat on Debian systems also handle gzipped files is a convenience for the user, but in no case guarantee scripts that the first available zcat in $PATH will be able to do so (and again zcat is not the best name for such a command due to historic heritage). Is this something unreasonable to ask? Yves.
