OpenBSD sdiff Question

[Bert JW Regeer]

On Mar 15, 2008, at 23:29 , David O'Brien wrote:

> On Sat, Mar 15, 2008 at 03:21:01PM -0700, Bert JW Regeer wrote:
>> Even if BSD has no tradition to keep a separate program version, it  
>> is
>> still very handy to be able to give this data to other developers if
>> something is failing.
>
> $ ident failing-binary is the output that means something.  A version
> string will not.
>
>
>> Programs that don't have a -v or --version switch are frustrating to
>
> Anyone used to working on BSD will not expect a -v switch.  It isn't  
> part
> of BSD tradition.  The simple fact there is no obivous "version" to  
> print
> just shows that in a OS that is developed and built as a whole,  
> having a
> version on the util is meaningless.
>
>> Dropping -v would be a bad thing, and make the tools not compatible,
>> thus breaking many scripts that do expect a -v.
>
> Come on, how many scripts do you write that do "sdiff -v" today?
>
> -- 
> -- David  (obrien at FreeBSD.org)
>

I see the reasoning behind dropping it now. It certainly make sense as  
you and Peter Jeremy describe it, I have just never thought of it that  
way.

Cheers,
Bert JW Regeer