Re: [PATCH 1/4] cksum: use --tag format by default

[Pádraig Brady]

On 17/09/2021 18:43, Eric Blake wrote:
> [IOn Wed, Sep 15, 2021 at 01:40:33PM +0100, Pádraig Brady wrote:
> > This format is a better default, since it results in simpler usage,
> > as you don't need to specify --tag on generation or -a on
> > checking invocations.  Also it's a more general format supporting
> > mixed and length adjusted digests.
>
> > @@ -4143,6 +4153,8 @@ indicating there was a failure.
> >   @item --tag
> >   @opindex --tag
> >   @cindex BSD output
> > +Note this option is not supported by the @command{cksum} command,
> > +as this is the default output format that it uses.
>
> Shouldn't we still support the option, even if it is a no-op in the
> common case, so that someone can do actions similar to:
>
> alias mysum='cksum --untagged '
>
> and then invoke 'mysum --tag' to turn it back on?

Maybe.
Perhaps on some systems only cksum might be installed,
with md5sum etc. being provided as simple wrappers like:

  exec cksum -a md5 --untagged "$@"

Though that begs the question, should cksum support all of
--tag, --text, --binary ?

I'd be 60:40 for adding the --tag option to cksum,
and 60:40 against the other two options.

thanks for the review!
Pádraig