Linux

2354 readers

2 users here now

Shit, just linux.

Use this community for anything related to linux for now, if it gets too huge maybe there will be some sort of meme/gaming/shitpost spinoff. Currently though… go nuts

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

carrot@sh.itjust.works

-1

mv *.jpg is complete bullshit. (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 9 months ago by mindbleach@sh.itjust.works to c/linux@sh.itjust.works

28 comments fedilink hide all child comments

'Well it's only passing mv a list of--' yeah yeah yeah, I know, and that's why I'm calling bullshit. It should be massively harder to execute filenames. Even if 1970s decisions make that the eternal hideous default: the lack of any idiot-proof standard workaround is incomprehensible.

StackOverflow's full of competing one-liners and people pointing out how each one is considered harmful. The least-skeezy options use exec. That sentence should make anyone recoil in horror.

This is not a filename problem. This is a tool problem. If a single printable character is going to silently expand into a list of names, then for god's sake, having it put each name in quotes should be fucking trivial.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] GenderNeutralBro@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

This is exactly correct. This is why I say it would require a whole new OS with no regard for compatibility with current systems.

As long as arguments are typeless and transmitted in a single array, there is no universal way to make programs distinguish between an option and file name that are identical. Full stop. No way. This has nothing to do with quoting schemes.

There are conventions to work around this (like --) but that is at the command level, NOT the shell level. It is not universal.

[–] NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Okay, I pretty much agree with you in theory, but in practice you're basically describing PowerShell which I just cannot. :P

[–] GenderNeutralBro@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 9 months ago

LOL. Now I feel dirty.

To be fair, there's a lot that PowerShell does much better than Bash and similar shells. Piping tables as tables is rad.