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Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy,comp.unix.bsd.misc,comp.os.linux.misc Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!lucy.swin.edu.au!news.rmit.EDU.AU!goanna.cs.rmit.edu.au!news.apana.org.au!cantor.edge.net.au!news.mira.net.au!news.netspace.net.au!news.mel.connect.com.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!feed1.news.erols.com!howland.erols.net!rill.news.pipex.net!pipex!uknet!usenet1.news.uk.psi.net!uknet!uknet!newsfeed.ed.ac.uk!edcogsci!richard From: richard@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Richard Tobin) Subject: Bug free programs (was: Linux vs BSD) X-Nntp-Posting-Host: pitcairn Message-ID: <E5LJGM.HtM@cogsci.ed.ac.uk> Sender: cnews@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (C News Software) Organization: HCRC, University of Edinburgh References: <5dfcpj$t45@agate.berkeley.edu> <DERAADT.97Feb7073546@zeus.theos.com> <5dnbe8$6cr@halon.vggas.com> Date: Fri, 14 Feb 1997 14:12:21 GMT Lines: 12 Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.advocacy:83735 comp.unix.bsd.misc:2487 comp.os.linux.misc:158187 In article <5dnbe8$6cr@halon.vggas.com> JYoungman@vggas.com (James Youngman) writes: >/usr/bin/true can probably fail in several ways, and return failure. I'd >suggest that /usr/bin/false is more likely to be bug-free. No, false is much worse - a time bomb waiting to explode. At least when something goes wrong with true you can see from the non-zero exit status that there's a problem. With false, you might have a subtle problem lurking for years without noticing it. -- Richard -- "Cake is a bistrubile cranabolic amphetamoid"