On 2021-09-21 at 16:16, Michael Stone wrote: > On Tue, Sep 21, 2021 at 09:00:52AM +0100, Jonathan Dowland wrote: > >> On Mon, Sep 20, 2021 at 11:02:49AM -0400, Michael Stone wrote: >> >>> It seems to install to /usr/bin/which.gnu, implying that you >>> could upload /usr/bin/which.bsd if you so desire; what's the >>> issue? >> >> I think we should have just one which implementation in the >> archive. We should (have) pick(ed) the best one for Debian. I >> believe (perhaps unfairly... I'd love to be proven wrong) that the >> GNU implementation was uploaded very quickly, without the BSD >> implementation being considered. Perhaps the GNU one is the best >> fit for our needs. It would have been nice to see that there was an >> evaluation. > > I think it doesn't matter how many which implementations are in > debian. If you want something with specific portable semantics, just > use command -v. I think I've seen that suggested a lot as an alternative for 'which', but it doesn't seem to be comparably reliable in all contexts. The primary issue I've run across to date is with aliases. For example, on my computer as I type this: $ which ls /usr/bin/ls $ command -v ls alias ls='ls -N --color=auto' $ $(which ls) / bin home lib32 media pulse srv var boot initrd.img lib64 mnt root sys vmlinuz dev initrd.img.old libx32 opt run tmp vmlinuz.old etc lib lost+found proc sbin usr $ $(command -v ls) / bash: alias: -N: not found bash: alias: /: not found And then 'ls' is broken in that shell session; I haven't yet found a way to get it working again, short of exiting and re-launching the shell. (Though I also haven't tried *terribly* hard.) This seems to demonstrate that you can't safely just use 'command -v' wherever you would otherwise use 'which'. -- The Wanderer The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. -- George Bernard Shaw
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