Re: [Bug-tar] [patch v3] Bug / question in tar

[Eric Blake]

[adding bug-standards]

On 03/20/2014 11:54 AM, Antonio Diaz Diaz wrote:
> Pavel Raiskup wrote:
>> I hope we came to conclusion that we really should not modify output (or
>> program behavior) based on what the output is (that goes against GNU
>> Coding Guidelines).  We can only react on inputs (similarly like in my
>> [v3] patch).  So in that regard I am against that patch.
> 
> As I understand the GNU Coding Standards[1], they refer to sending text
> output to a device (terminal or otherwise). They say nothing about
> sending binary data to a terminal.
> 
> In my opinion, binary data like a tar archive or a compressed file
> should neither be read from nor written to a terminal. In fact writing
> binary data to a terminal can be more destructive (require the use of
> 'reset') than reading binary data from it.
> 
> [1] http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/html_node/User-Interfaces.html

Then let's see if we can get the GNU Coding Standards updated to clarify
that binary output is indeed different from text output with regards to
the restriction on behaving differently based on an fd being a terminal.

-- 
Eric Blake   eblake redhat com    +1-919-301-3266
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org

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