Comments on: ls –color considered harmful http://blog.wompom.org/index.php/2008/01/26/ls-color-considered-harmful/ a web-log Sat, 31 Jul 2010 16:13:04 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.1.2 By: Matthew W. S. Bell http://blog.wompom.org/index.php/2008/01/26/ls-color-considered-harmful/#comment-5409 Matthew W. S. Bell Sun, 27 Jan 2008 06:16:05 +0000 http://blog.wompom.org/index.php/2008/01/26/ls-color-considered-harmful/#comment-5409 Nah, you're confusing the symptom with the problem(s): - network file-systems are rubbish - auto-mounting is a slightly broken idea - file/directory API is not ideal for high-latency file-systems Nah, you're confusing the symptom with the problem(s):

- network file-systems are rubbish
- auto-mounting is a slightly broken idea
- file/directory API is not ideal for high-latency file-systems

]]> By: ads http://blog.wompom.org/index.php/2008/01/26/ls-color-considered-harmful/#comment-5413 ads Sun, 27 Jan 2008 09:25:02 +0000 http://blog.wompom.org/index.php/2008/01/26/ls-color-considered-harmful/#comment-5413 Whilst I agree with your bullet points Matthew, I would say that the default configuration of ls --color exacerbates the situation greatly. The other day, a colleague was puzzled that ls ~user1 worked when ls ~user2 hung. (His system had 'alias ls=ls --color=tty' in its defaults). Turns out, user2 had a symlink in his homedir to a filesystem that was unavailable. This action at a distance is a clear violation of the principle of least surprise. Whilst I agree with your bullet points Matthew, I would say that the default configuration of ls –color exacerbates the situation greatly. The other day, a colleague was puzzled that ls ~user1 worked when ls ~user2 hung. (His system had 'alias ls=ls –color=tty' in its defaults). Turns out, user2 had a symlink in his homedir to a filesystem that was unavailable.

This action at a distance is a clear violation of the principle of least surprise.

]]> By: James http://blog.wompom.org/index.php/2008/01/26/ls-color-considered-harmful/#comment-5414 James Sun, 27 Jan 2008 10:51:41 +0000 http://blog.wompom.org/index.php/2008/01/26/ls-color-considered-harmful/#comment-5414 To quote the dircolors manpage on Debian: "FILES /etc/DIR_COLORS (Slackware, SuSE and RedHat only; ignored by GNU dircolors(1) and thus Debian.) System-wide configuration file. ~/.dir_colors (Slackware, SuSE and RedHat only; ignored by GNU dircolors(1) and thus Debian.) Per-user configuration file." Also dircolors --print-directory doesn't work on Debian. To quote the dircolors manpage on Debian: "FILES
/etc/DIR_COLORS
(Slackware, SuSE and RedHat only; ignored by GNU dircolors(1) and thus Debian.) System-wide configuration file.

~/.dir_colors
(Slackware, SuSE and RedHat only; ignored by GNU dircolors(1) and thus Debian.) Per-user configuration file."

Also dircolors –print-directory doesn't work on Debian.

]]> By: ads http://blog.wompom.org/index.php/2008/01/26/ls-color-considered-harmful/#comment-5420 ads Sun, 27 Jan 2008 16:32:49 +0000 http://blog.wompom.org/index.php/2008/01/26/ls-color-considered-harmful/#comment-5420 <b>James</b>: I've updated the article in light of your final point. James: I've updated the article in light of your final point.

]]> By: Marius Gedminas http://blog.wompom.org/index.php/2008/01/26/ls-color-considered-harmful/#comment-5431 Marius Gedminas Mon, 28 Jan 2008 18:12:24 +0000 http://blog.wompom.org/index.php/2008/01/26/ls-color-considered-harmful/#comment-5431 Do you also consider ls -l harmful? Symlinks to automatic mountpoints are broken, period. Do you also consider ls -l harmful?

Symlinks to automatic mountpoints are broken, period.

]]> By: ads http://blog.wompom.org/index.php/2008/01/26/ls-color-considered-harmful/#comment-5433 ads Mon, 28 Jan 2008 21:32:33 +0000 http://blog.wompom.org/index.php/2008/01/26/ls-color-considered-harmful/#comment-5433 <strong>Marius</strong>: no, it's not hugely harmful. Likewise, ls --color, with disabling orphan checking is similarly harmless. However, ls -lL is dangerous. Fortunately, people don't alias ls to ls -lL. Interestingly, I've just discovered, ls -L stats all sorts of things yet doesn't change its output on the basis of it! Marius: no, it’s not hugely harmful. Likewise, ls –color, with disabling orphan checking is similarly harmless. However, ls -lL is dangerous. Fortunately, people don't alias ls to ls -lL. Interestingly, I've just discovered, ls -L stats all sorts of things yet doesn't change its output on the basis of it!

]]>