Re: [Gnu-arch-users] .listing files

[Phil Frost]

On Sun, Sep 19, 2004 at 07:53:48PM -0700, Tom Lord wrote:
> The presense of .listing files imposes otherwise unecessary
> administrative burdens on archives (e.g., the need to notice when it
> is necessary to run `archive-fixup' and then to actually do it).
> 
> In trying to save people from learning one thing by changing the
> default, you would be setting them up to be burned by not having
> learned a different thing.
> 
> In general, proposed design decisions aimed at helping people to
> wallow in ignorance rather than learning a simple thing are a dubious
> idea, imo.
> 
> -t


I agree. It just came to mind that I think the failure one will see when
trying to access an archive without .listings via http is "webdav error
404" or something along those lines. I think in many cases a better fix
is a short pointer to the command or option likely to fix the problem.
I think this is one of many such cases in arch. If such modifications to
the error text will be accepted, I am willing to make the changes.