[bug-inetutils] Re: ping, --count=NUMBER

[Simon Josefsson]

Sergey Poznyakoff <address@hidden> writes:

> Alfred M. Szmidt <address@hidden> ha escrit:
>
>> What do people think about making the NUMBER argument to --count
>> optional?  The default value could be 3.
>
> This will create a minor incompatibility with another ping
> implementations.  I mean, some people may be using this in
> their script:
>
>    ping -c 4
>
> which will break when -c is changed to accept optional argument.

It seems incompatible even today, what would the following mean?

ping -c 3468664375

Is the number a -c count or the IP address?  If the -c parameter is
optional, both are valid interpretations.

I don't see any reason to deviate from the traditional behaviour here.

/Simon