Subject: Re: upgrade to mv
To: Lucio De Re <lucio@proxima.alt.za>
From: Greywolf <greywolf@starwolf.com>
List: tech-userlevel
Date: 08/15/2001 09:25:36
On Wed, 15 Aug 2001, Lucio De Re wrote:

# On Wed, Aug 15, 2001 at 06:01:34PM +0200, Matthias Buelow wrote:
# >
# > Robert Schmid <robert_schmid@fourthgen.com> writes:
# >
# > >mv -l source will convert the filename to all lower case and
# > >mv -u source will convert the filename to all upper case.
# >
# > Bleargh!!! This is so anti-Unixish, it makes my toenails fall off!!!
# >
# Only because you think of it as "move" :-)  It is an
# understandable and convenient operation for "rename".  And
# useful in environments where SAMBA or some of the exotic
# filesystems are in daily use.
#
# It's nice to know that commands with this functionality have
# been introduced, despite the "but it's not Unix!" attitude we
# all seem to suffer from in some degree or other :-)

BZZT!  Thanks for playing.

The reasons given for mv/cp/ln not having this functionality have, in my
mind, been suitably addressed; to wit:

- mmv, though ages old, does exist and does a FINE job of what the original
  poster asked for.

- move (or whatever the perl script was named), does exist and provides some
  different, but comparable, functionality.

- One can write a script to handle this (I have done so -- it's specialised,
  but it works for what I usually want).

- This is probably the most important one:  XARGS NEEDS TO BE BROUGHT UP TO
  DATE.  Our xargs(1) is horribly lacking in its syntax handling compared
  to that of, say, solaris.  This was one thing that SVRx did correctly.
  We have no way to intersperse a variable parameter in the middle of the
  list given to xargs.

The suggested flags for mv (/cp/ln)(1) do not belong there.

# ++L

				--*greywolf;
--
NetBSD: It's not Windows.