Re: Path modification
> > Jon Eisenstein <jon@dominia.dyn.dhs.org> writes:
> > > I recently filed a bug report (80092) against the nmh package
> > > regarding the location of its program files. It installs files
> > > into /usr/bin/mh, which isn't in the path, making running the
> > > program difficult until the reason is found.
cmiller@surfsouth.com (Chad Miller) added:
> MH is like that on every platform I've ever seen. MH users should be
> accustomed to altering their paths.
True. This is the traditional way of handling MH commands. A very good
way in my opinion.
> Folks who don't use or know of MH can't accidentally screw themselves
> by typing 'import' (or whatever).
Exactly the reason that it is done this way. Non-MH users (who have
not added /usr/bin/mh to their paths) do not need to run any of the MH
commands.
> > > A suggestion was made by the maintainer to file a report against
> > > base-files to add that to the default path
A very bad suggestion.
> On Wed, Jan 10, 2001 at 11:03:53AM +0900, Miles Bader wrote:
> > I thought the reason for putting mh commands into a separate
> > directory was to avoid gratuitous namespace pollution for the
> > majority that doesn't use mh (given that mh uses a lot of commands
> > with overly generic names).
> > If the mh bin directory is in the default path, what's the point?
Exactly. There is none.
Here is the point of using a separate path. When the command line IS
the user interface to a piece of software, it makes sense that the shell
should need to be activated somehow before it takes on this roll. For
MH, this means that the appropriate directory must be added to the path.
For anyone familiar with the Unix way of doing things (and if he is not,
why would he want to use MH?), this makes perfect sense.
This activation step is well documented in the nmh man page (see
paragraph 4). Just as a user should be expected to read the pine man
page to know how to use pine, the MH user should be expected to read the
nmh man page before using MH. If he has read the documentation, then he
should not find "running the program [to be] difficult."
This bug report should be classified as not a bug and should be closed
immediately.
- Brian
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