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Re: du and wc should be able to read arguments from a file


From: Dave Gotwisner
Subject: Re: du and wc should be able to read arguments from a file
Date: Fri, 19 Sep 2003 19:49:27 -0700

Richard Dawe wrote:

> Hello.
>
> Dave Gotwisner wrote:
> [snip]
> > Rather than assume it just takes a list of files, I would suggest strongly
> > that whoever chooses to implement this (if anyone does), they also allow
> > it to take other options as part of the file.
> > Literally, they should replace the "--process-file=foo" with the literal
> > contents of the file foo, not assuming they are files.  This gives a nice
> > generic interface for scripting, and as such, as Jim says, any thing which
> > needs to be escaped should be.  Maybe doing quote processing, to boot.
> [snip]
>
> If options were supported in the file, how would you perform operations on a
> file beginning with '-'? I suppose '--' could mean 'end of options' like it
> does on the command-line.
>
> Regards,
>
> --
> Richard Dawe [ http://www.phekda.freeserve.co.uk/richdawe/ ]
>

The idea is to operate on the data within the file exactly as if it had been
typed
on the command line.  Therefore -- to end options or ./- to specify a file
starting
with -, just like you would do when typing at the shell level.

    Dave





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