Re: FAQ: add progress-bar question for cp,mv,dd

[Pádraig Brady]

On 02/09/15 16:51, Assaf Gordon wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> Related to: http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/coreutils/2015-08/msg00036.html
> 
> What do you think about the following wording for a new FAQ entry:
> ---
> Q.
> Please add progress bar to cp/mv/dd
> 
> A.
> Progress bar for cp,mv commands has been deemed unwarranted...

... with an external tool like progress(1) being seen as a more general 
solution.
BTW, progress(1) might be something we could consider adding to coreutils
(even though currently Linux specific).

> see
> <a 
> href="http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/rejected_requests.html#cp";>reject 
> requests for cp</a>
> and <a 
> href="http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/coreutils/2015-08/msg00036.html";>previous
>  discussions</a>.

+1

> 
> The recommended way to copy files with progress information is to use 
> `rsync` :
> 
>    $ rsync -P srcfile dstfile

I'd probably just say:

  Note `rsync -P` can be used to copy files with progress information.

> For dd, starting coreutils version 8.24 (released on July 2015) dd has a 
> new option `status=progress` to print progress information. See
> <a 
> href="http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/coreutils/2015-07/msg00056.html";>short
>  tutorial</a>
> and
> <a 
> href="http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/coreutils.git/commit/?id=af2a4ed22594badd2719c0123441d69b17bd8328";>commit</a>.

I'd probably change all of the above to just describe the dd change like:

  Note also that since version 8.24 (released July 2015),
  `dd status=progress` can use used to indicate transfer statistics
  for lower level copy operations, in the form:

    <pre>3723772416 bytes (3.7 GB) copied, 4.000001 s, 931 MB/s</pre>

> Also,
> Attached is a small patch for the FAQ html page, to add anchors to the 
> program sections (this way we can point to the specific program's 
> rejected ideas).

looks good.

thanks!
Pádraig.