Re: Zutils vs single compressor utilities

[Antonio Diaz Diaz]

Paul Eggert wrote:
> > IMHO this problem is already solved.
>
> If you're right, then there is no rush in changing gzip.

I mean this problem is already being solved in diverse and incompatible 
ways by every distro addressing it. Changing gzip will give them a clear 
hint about what to do, and will avoid more incompatible changes in the 
future.

Of course I know it may be difficult to make this change, but IMHO it 
would be best to release this change as, say, gzip 1.4.1 ASAP.


> If memory serves, we were going to add a configure-time flag
> to change the program names from z* to gz*, which sounds
> reasonable, when someone gets around to it.

Exactly.


> You might also consider what changes are needed to the FHS,
> since it seems to be incompatible with what's being proposed.

The FHS is already incompatible with the GNU Coding Standards[1], so 
renaming zcat to gzcat could help getting the FHS corrected, as it would 
make the FHS even more wrong that it is now.

[1]http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/html_node/User-Interfaces.html#User-Interfaces
"Please don't make the behavior of a utility depend on the name used to 
invoke it. It is useful sometimes to make a link to a utility with a 
different name, and that should not change what it does."


Also the man page for the original zcat utility from UNIX[2] says 
nothing about it being a link.

[2]http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/000095399/utilities/zcat.html
"The zcat utility shall write to standard output the uncompressed form 
of files that have been compressed using the compress utility. It is the 
equivalent of uncompress -c."


So I guess the sentence "If the gunzip and zcat programs exist, they 
must be symbolic or hard links to gzip" should be removed from the FHS[3].
[3]http://www.pathname.com/fhs/pub/fhs-2.3.html#SPECIFICOPTIONS2

I would write to the FHS people myself, but as the FHS is already 
incompatible with the GNU Coding Standards I wonder if someone from the 
FSF can write them instead. I'll ask.


Regards,
Antonio.