On Thu, Jul 22, 2010 at 18:06, Chris Adams <cmadams(a)hiwaay.net> wrote:
Once upon a time, Lennart Poettering <mzerqung(a)0pointer.de>
said:
> Same with systemd. If you use "systemctl status foo.service" the output
> is human readable. If it is "systemctl show foo.service" it is computer
> parsable. Just a slightly different command of the systemctl tool.
Again: this is confusing! There should be one (and only one) command to
show information. It should accept arguments to modify that output,
e.g. default to brief info, -v gets a little more info, -vv gets all
kinds of info, -p to get "parseable" output (or -f for "formatted"),
etc.
Having "status" and "show" give the same info in different formats
will
always be confusing. People won't remember which is which (because the
works mean similar things in this context) and will run the wrong one
for what they want about 50% of the time (which will just be
frustrating).
To reword this into a slightly less cranky more useful comment:
My usual dealing with this is that you want one command and an
optional flag to change output.
systemctl status # awk readable
systemctl status --human # human readable
The general rule to remember is that the person you are going to deal
with is going to be tired, grumpy, and pissed off. Commands need to be
simple to remember and easy to script first.
--
Stephen J Smoogen.
“The core skill of innovators is error recovery, not failure avoidance.”
Randy Nelson, President of Pixar University.
"We have a strategic plan. It's called doing things.""
— Herb Kelleher, founder Southwest Airlines