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Groups > comp.lang.c > #101544
| From | Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> |
|---|---|
| Newsgroups | comp.lang.c |
| Subject | Re: standard error codes |
| Date | 2017-01-12 19:50 +0000 |
| Organization | Fix this later |
| Message-ID | <o58miv$4ud$1@dont-email.me> (permalink) |
| References | (17 earlier) <87o9zdtgzo.fsf@gmail.com> <o57o66$urn$1@dont-email.me> <lnwpe0nq6n.fsf@kst-u.example.com> <o58gg3$d6i$1@dont-email.me> <lnshoonk3c.fsf@kst-u.example.com> |
On 12/01/17 19:39, Keith Thompson wrote: > Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> writes: <snip> >> Actually, I agree with David here: strdiff would be a better name, for >> the same reason that diff(1) is well-named (see below). > > I still disagree, for the reasons I've stated, but it's not a big deal. Agreed (that it's not a big deal). >>> And in the case of strcmp, you can think of the >>> negative/zero/positive result it returns as a *comparison*, which >>> makes the name strcmp, perfectly sensible. It's not the most >>> intuitive name, but it's more than good enough. >> >> Yes. Although strdiff would be a better name, strcmp will do. >> >>> (A somewhat irrelevant example: the Unix "diff" command returns >>> a result indicating success if the two files do *not* differ. >>> That probably bothered me for a couple of minutes when I first >>> learned about it.) >> >> diff returns 0 if the diff is 0. What's to be bothered about? > > The status returned by a command is not a count, it's a success/failure > indication, with an opportunity to distinguish among different kinds of > failures (at least on Unix-like systems, where EXIT_SUCCESS==0 and any > non-zero status (modulo 256) denotes failure). Sure. But ALMOST without exception, when I call diff, I'm using it to determine whether a difference exists between two files that I expect to be the same. Thus, a difference would count as failure. No difference would count as success, and by a happy coincidence 0 (success) is what is returned when there is no difference between the two files. This is a perfectly reasonable way to justify the choices that the diff writers made... > The shell's "if" statement treats a successful status of 0 as > a true condition. One might naively assume that: > > if diff file1 file2 ; then > echo yes > else > echo no > fi > > would print "yes" if the files differ. ...and that is an equally reasonable contrary view. :-) > (csh/tcsh use different syntax, > but the same idea holds.) And typically the output of the diff command > is of more interest than its status. For me at least, typically the /lack/ of output of the diff command is what I like to see. (But that's only another way of saying the same thing.) Anyway... back to C? -- Richard Heathfield Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk "Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999 Sig line 4 vacant - apply within
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standard error codes Thiago Adams <thiago.adams@gmail.com> - 2017-01-08 06:34 -0800
Re: standard error codes Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2017-01-08 11:05 -0800
Re: standard error codes Thiago Adams <thiago.adams@gmail.com> - 2017-01-09 03:33 -0800
Re: standard error codes Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2017-01-09 04:55 -0800
Re: standard error codes Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2017-01-09 09:06 -0800
Re: standard error codes Thiago Adams <thiago.adams@gmail.com> - 2017-01-09 09:52 -0800
Re: standard error codes BartC <bc@freeuk.com> - 2017-01-09 21:50 +0000
Re: standard error codes BartC <bc@freeuk.com> - 2017-01-09 22:36 +0000
Re: standard error codes supercat@casperkitty.com - 2017-01-09 14:51 -0800
Re: standard error codes BartC <bc@freeuk.com> - 2017-01-09 23:39 +0000
Re: standard error codes supercat@casperkitty.com - 2017-01-09 15:51 -0800
Re: standard error codes Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2017-01-09 16:08 -0800
Re: standard error codes supercat@casperkitty.com - 2017-01-09 18:51 -0800
Re: standard error codes Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2017-01-10 02:02 -0800
Re: standard error codes supercat@casperkitty.com - 2017-01-10 07:34 -0800
Re: standard error codes BartC <bc@freeuk.com> - 2017-01-10 01:39 +0000
Re: standard error codes Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2017-01-10 09:07 -0800
Re: standard error codes supercat@casperkitty.com - 2017-01-10 09:59 -0800
Re: standard error codes Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2017-01-10 12:02 -0800
Re: standard error codes Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2017-01-10 12:53 -0800
Re: standard error codes Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2017-01-10 13:03 -0800
Re: standard error codes Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2017-01-10 15:41 -0800
Re: standard error codes Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2017-01-11 02:56 +0000
Re: standard error codes supercat@casperkitty.com - 2017-01-11 07:42 -0800
Re: standard error codes supercat@casperkitty.com - 2017-01-10 12:59 -0800
Re: standard error codes BartC <bc@freeuk.com> - 2017-01-10 18:14 +0000
Re: standard error codes Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2017-01-10 12:12 -0800
Re: standard error codes BartC <bc@freeuk.com> - 2017-01-10 20:35 +0000
Re: standard error codes Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2017-01-10 13:00 -0800
Re: standard error codes supercat@casperkitty.com - 2017-01-11 08:16 -0800
Re: standard error codes Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2017-01-11 18:25 +0000
Re: standard error codes BartC <bc@freeuk.com> - 2017-01-11 19:09 +0000
Re: standard error codes Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2017-01-11 12:03 -0800
Re: standard error codes Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2017-01-11 20:10 +0000
Re: standard error codes Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2017-01-11 12:19 -0800
Re: standard error codes BartC <bc@freeuk.com> - 2017-01-11 20:31 +0000
Re: standard error codes Lew Pitcher <lew.pitcher@digitalfreehold.ca> - 2017-01-11 15:32 -0500
Re: standard error codes Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2017-01-11 20:48 +0000
Re: standard error codes Lew Pitcher <lew.pitcher@digitalfreehold.ca> - 2017-01-11 15:58 -0500
Re: standard error codes Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2017-01-11 13:01 -0800
Re: standard error codes Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2017-01-11 21:05 +0000
Re: standard error codes BartC <bc@freeuk.com> - 2017-01-11 21:08 +0000
Re: standard error codes Gareth Owen <gwowen@gmail.com> - 2017-01-11 21:38 +0000
Re: standard error codes BartC <bc@freeuk.com> - 2017-01-11 21:58 +0000
Re: standard error codes David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2017-01-12 12:11 +0100
Re: standard error codes Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2017-01-12 09:28 -0800
Re: standard error codes Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2017-01-12 18:06 +0000
Re: standard error codes Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2017-01-12 11:39 -0800
Re: standard error codes Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2017-01-12 19:50 +0000
Re: standard error codes Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2017-01-12 13:03 -0800
Re: standard error codes Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2017-01-12 21:13 +0000
Re: standard error codes <william@wilbur.25thandClement.com> - 2017-01-12 20:00 -0800
Re: standard error codes Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2017-01-13 01:56 -0800
Re: standard error codes Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2017-01-13 12:54 +0000
Re: standard error codes Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2017-01-13 09:35 -0800
Re: standard error codes Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2017-01-13 17:38 +0000
Re: standard error codes James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2017-01-13 13:06 -0500
Re: standard error codes raltbos@xs4all.nl (Richard Bos) - 2017-01-18 12:00 +0000
Re: standard error codes Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2017-01-18 12:13 +0000
Re: standard error codes Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2017-01-12 16:43 -0800
Re: standard error codes <william@wilbur.25thandClement.com> - 2017-01-12 19:34 -0800
Re: standard error codes Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2017-01-13 09:27 -0800
Re: standard error codes raltbos@xs4all.nl (Richard Bos) - 2017-01-12 19:33 +0000
Re: standard error codes Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2017-01-12 12:10 -0800
Re: standard error codes supercat@casperkitty.com - 2017-01-11 11:50 -0800
Re: standard error codes Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2017-01-11 20:38 +0000
Re: standard error codes jadill33@gmail.com - 2017-01-11 12:26 -0800
Re: standard error codes Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2017-01-11 20:44 +0000
Re: standard error codes Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2017-01-09 09:03 -0800
Re: standard error codes supercat@casperkitty.com - 2017-01-08 11:40 -0800
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