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From: mellman@ttrdd.UUCP (Thomas Mellman)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: ksh question
Message-ID: <191@ttrdd.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 15-Jul-87 18:23:46 EDT
Article-I.D.: ttrdd.191
Posted: Wed Jul 15 18:23:46 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 18-Jul-87 06:21:20 EDT
References: <190@ttrdd.UUCP> <6112@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Organization: AT&T, Skokie, IL
Lines: 35
Keywords: noclobber
Summary: Some people like gambling, some are brave - I'm nervous

In article <6112@brl-smoke.ARPA>, gwyn@brl-smoke.ARPA (Doug Gwyn ) writes:
> In article <190@ttrdd.UUCP> mellman@ttrdd.UUCP (Thomas Mellman) writes:
> >How do people in the ksh world do without noclobber?
> 
> Like many other Berkeleyisms,
> it helps human users who work in accordance with its usage model but
> gets in the way of others.  I for one do not WANT this feature.

That's why it's a settable option of the csh.  BSD discriminates against
neither gamblers nor users with bravado.

> Sure.  Set up a bunch of shell functions for all the things like this that
> you frequently do...

One must conclude, then, that the redirectable outputs of the
ksh are only too be used from within scripts?

> Perhaps it is wise to develop the habit of pausing to review each
> command before typing RETURN.

*Nobody* can say he never makes mistakes, and files can have
tremendous worth, even if it's not always easy to convince the
system administrator, who has to dig out and mount a tape to restore
an outdated version. 

Sure, if I have to live without noclobber, I will.  Actually, I won't,
because as soon as I get a chance, I'm going to hack a version that
*never* overwrites a file on redirection of stdout/stderr.

But I'd like to see an outpouring of support so that this kind of
thing can be standardized, instead of having to use special versions.
Sure we can all do without protection that we don't inadvertently
stamp out files - but then, we could do without computers, too.
They are here to serve our needs.  Noclobber is a proven and
invaluable feature for a significant set of users.