Re: [Pan-users] Re: Help

[Per Hedeland]

walt <address@hidden> wrote:
>
>On Mon, 05 Nov 2007 15:42:47 +0000, Duncan wrote:
>
>> "Bill Wright" <address@hidden> posted
>> address@hidden, excerpted below, on  Mon, 05 Nov
>> 2007 08:22:37 -0500:
>> 
>>> ...How do I get to and how do I find .pan2 file so that I can rename 
>>> it?
>
><much good advice snipped for brevity>
>
>> BTW, rm, cp, mv, and similar commands, all have a -i (interactive)
>> switch as well.  This will prompt every time the command will overwrite
>> or delete an existing file.  Some distributions alias particularly rm to
>> rm - i for safety, so you get interactive mode by default...
>
>I also never rely on the installer to set up my shell environment, so I
>make a point of including these lines in my .bashrc file:
>
>alias l='ls -laF'
>alias ll='ls -laF|less'
>alias mv='mv -i'
>alias rm='rm -i'
>alias cp='cp -i'

I really have to disagree with this, and I think Duncan alluded to the
problem in the part that you snipped: One day, at the worst possible
moment, you'll find yourself without those aliases. Maybe there was a
typo in your .bashrc that prevented those lines from being run, maybe
you've 'su -'ed to another user, maybe you're helping a co-worker typing
some commands into *his* shell... In the same vein, distributors that
set up those aliases by default are doing their users a huge disservice.

Aliases are fine for avoiding a lot of boring typing, in particular if
they implement a "new command" - like your 'l' and 'll'. They're *not*
fine for *replacing* standard commands with ones that have radically
different semantics. Learn to work with the system instead - 'rm' *is*
dangerous for the unwary, if you can't handle that sit on your hands or
make a habit of using -i, or at least create a *differently named*
alias, like, uh, 'del'...:-)

I was going to add an IMHO to that, but on second thought, I won't.

--Per Hedeland