[bug #18174] [wishlist] Add "-type u" test for paths with unknown type

[James Youngman]

Update of bug #18174 (project findutils):

                  Status:                    None => Wont Fix               
             Assigned to:                    None => jay                    
             Open/Closed:                    Open => Closed                 

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Follow-up Comment #2:

I've decided not to implement this.  

The current behaviour is easy to explain and complies with POSIX.  The
proposed bahviour may or may not be POSIX compliant, is somewhat trickier to
explain, and probably makes a lot of things more ambiguous.

For example, this query would print the names of files we can't stat, but the
"-size" test would need to fail (since we do not know the size).

find -type u -print -size 3 [more predicates]

However, consider this alternative query:

find -type u -print ! -size 3 [more predicates]

Here, "! -size 3" would also have to fail, because we cannot be sure that the
file we cannot stat does _not_ have a size of 3.  

This means that instead of predicates returning true/false valus, they would
all need to be able to return Tuue vs. False vs. Indeterminate.

That would add a lot of complexity, and I don't believe the benefit justifies
the additional complexity.



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  <http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?18174>

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