I started to wonder, why starting a new uxterm is so slow. Then I
found this in the output of of "ps auxf":

juhtolv   4392  0.1  0.7  12916  3852 ?        S    15:01   0:00 xterm -class UXTerm -title uxterm -u8 -geometry 174x57+0+0
juhtolv   4396  0.3  0.3   7176  1808 pts/18   Ss   15:01   0:00  \_ -zsh
juhtolv   4664  0.7  0.5   8328  3020 pts/18   D+   15:02   0:00      \_ /usr/bin/python /usr/bin/gcp --help
juhtolv   4665  0.0  0.1   5248   672 pts/18   S+   15:02   0:00      \_ grep -i gnu.org

I know exactly, why that happened. Here are relevant parts from
startup-files of my shell:
---- Clip here ----
    # Sun Solaris has gazillion GNU utils, that has g added in the
    # beginning of their names. I try to (ab)use them,

    # Some more alias to avoid making mistakes:

    if gcp --help 2>&1 | grep -i "gnu.org" > /dev/null 2>&1
    then
        alias cp='gcp -i -p'
    else
        alias cp='cp -i -p'
    fi

---- Clip here ----

I have no more access to computers running Sun Solaris, so I can
comment away those lines from init files of my shell. Now that part is
substituted with this:

---- Clip here ----
    # Meanwhile, let's stick with this:
    alias cp='cp -i -p'
---- Clip here ----

But I am sure users of Sun Solaris will become upset because of that
name clash. Hence, the upstream author of this software must find a
better name for that command that runs his/her software.

This is not the first time something like this happens: That famous
editor alled nano ("Nano's ANOther editor") was first named to tip
("tip isn't pico"), because it is a free clone of pico. When author of
that text editor was looking for a name for his text editor, he
checked commands of some GNU/Linux-distributions and free BSD
-operating systems in order to avoid name clashes. Hence, tip was
chosen to be the name of his text editor. Later somebody told to that
author, that Sun Solaris already has a command called "tip".

What about "acp"? Is it already taken by any project? Since gcp is said to be
an advanced file copier that would be nice I guess. What do you think Jérôme?

Unfortunetely since the Debian freeze is scheduled in 2 days, I guess the
renaming will only happen later. That could be a problem if people start to
use gcp in their scripts.

Best regards,

Thomas Preud'homme

Wouldn't it make more sense to have something like this in your shell
startup file:

case `uname -s` in
  SunOS)
    alias cp='gcp -i -p'
    ;;
  *)
    alias cp='cp -i -p'
    ;;
esac

Problem solved, and you don't have to sniff for gnu.org in its
help. That solaris even has a GNU cp... well, that is just silly, and
should not be used as a reason to rename anything.

Le jeudi 28 juin 2012 15:17:37 vous avez écrit :

I'm ok to change the name, no worries, I was not inspirated and was thinking
for a while that it was a bad name anyway.

I plan to make a similar high level version of rm too, and maybe join g^Wcp
with it to something name [prefix]tools.

So what for the prefix ? arm is too close for armel. Maybe pycp, pyrm, pytools
? xcp, xrm, xtools ?

cheers
Goffi

oopps pytools already exists, so forget this one :)

Le jeudi 28 juin 2012 15:25:34 Goffi a écrit :