Re: [bug-mailutils] `frm' and `from'

[Alain Magloire]

> 
> Andrew Barnes <address@hidden> wrote:
> 
> > i'd guess that some people are using it so maybe its better to move it
> > to examples, at least for a while, until they can make sure they have
> > sorted out everything that uses it.
> 
> Well, I guess I didn't explain myself quite well. I meant that linking
> `frm' to `from', as Wojciech proposed, will suffice, so we may safely
> remove `from'.
> 

IIRC ..

from: was written to be compatible with the BSD utility:
 from [-s sender] [ username ]

frm,nfrm:IIRC, were defacto standard taken from the elm group.

I think the idea was to provide the same set of utilities provides
by elm, which include: frm, nfrm, readmsg, etc ...

The problem of making symbolic links:
- possible conflict of the "-s" option
- the gnu standard 8-):
        "Please don't make the behavior of a utility depend on the name used
        to invoke it.  It is useful sometimes to make a link to a utility with
        a different name, and that should not change what it does."

Note: I'm just explaining why we have "frm" and "from"