Subject: Re: bin/2893: Prettier df listings with long nfs mounts.
To: None <netbsd-bugs@NetBSD.ORG>
From: der Mouse <mouse@Holo.Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA>
List: netbsd-bugs
Date: 10/27/1996 05:57:48
>> Why not check it stdout is a tty?  If not, default to the old style
>> output.

> On the surface, that seems like a good idea... however, consider the
> case of the dailies... you might want them to look pretty there, but
> there's not a tty associated with that process when they go off.

> I'm inclined to say "Pretty by default, add a flag to specify one-row
> output."

I don't like that; it means that scripts that parse df output, scripts
that work on other systems, will mysteriously break when moved to
NetBSD.  (Of course, such scripts will also break when moved to SunOS
and similar systems, so this is a relatively weak argument.)

My preference would be, split lines default on if output is tty, off if
not, with flags available to force it either way.  (I say "split lines"
rather than "pretty" because I don't happen to think the split lines
look significantly prettier than unsplit lines, as long as the column
headings line up.  But I also don't think they're uglier enough to
argue against them.)

					der Mouse

			       mouse@rodents.montreal.qc.ca
		     01 EE 31 F6 BB 0C 34 36  00 F3 7C 5A C1 A0 67 1D