Re: Bash handling of ENOENT on missing files and directories

[Greg Wooledge]

On Tue, Sep 05, 2017 at 12:18:40AM +0300, Jonny Grant wrote:
> > > $ cd missingdir
> > > bash: cd: missingdir: No such file or directory

> Yes, it's a known limitation of POSIX that it uses a shared error code for
> both files and directors, ENOENT. Which without programmers handling and
> checking the stat() flags, means the error isn't completely clear in the
> case where a file or dir does exist.

I find it completely clear.  I *prefer* seeing this error string over
some alternative spelling, because when I see this string, I know
*exactly* what it means.

When I see "No such file" or whatever, then I don't know exactly what
it means, other than someone is trying to dumb down the software to
"help" newbies in a way that is not actually helpful.

Keep following this slippery slope and you get Microsoft Windows error
messages that say nothing useful at all.  "An error has occurred."