[Gnu-arch-users] Re: from a file's point of view

[Miles Bader]

Samuel Tardieu <address@hidden> writes:
> Miles> Is that compatible with the historical behavior of xargs?  Does
> Miles> it have an option to _not_ use that behavior (i.e., the reverse
> Miles> of gnu xargs -r)?
> 
> Do you know of one single case where this behaviour would be
> desirable?

   CALCULATE-FILE-LIST | xargs echo changed files:

If there's really a strong argument to be made for -r being the default,
it should apply to gnu xargs too; I don't know whether such an argument
has been made or not in the past.

But I don't think you can just lightly say `oh that's not useful, users
won't depend on it' -- users _always_ find a way to depend on weird
things like that.... :-)

-Miles
-- 
Next to fried food, the South has suffered most from oratory.
                        -- Walter Hines Page