Re: Discovering alternative commands
On Thu 01 Jun 2017 at 17:46:31 (+0200), tomas@tuxteam.de wrote:
> On Thu, Jun 01, 2017 at 10:23:58AM -0500, David Wright wrote:
> > On Thu 01 Jun 2017 at 09:20:08 (-0500), Richard Owlett wrote:
> > > On 06/01/2017 08:14 AM, tomas@tuxteam.de wrote:
> > > >-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> > > >Hash: SHA1
> > > >
> > > >On Thu, Jun 01, 2017 at 07:22:36AM -0500, Richard Owlett wrote:
> > > >>I'm working on a problem that requires as input an association of
> > > >>disk partitions and their "label" (in gparted sense).
> > > >>
> > > >>I already have blkid and lsblk. They are obviously designed for
> > > >>different purposes. They both _can_ supply the desired information.
> > > >>Neither is ideal for me.
> > > >
> > > >You're always so whimsical :)
> > >
> > > *ROFL* I disagree.
> >
> > I agree very much.
> >
> > > My questions may be weird, obtuse, or convoluted. Rarely, if ever,
> > > whimsical ;)
> > > What people have said about my world view for >70 yrs best left ...
> >
> > The problem with whimsical is that it has two meanings. From the web,
> > for ease of cut and paste,
> >
> > 1.
> > playfully quaint or fanciful, especially in an appealing and amusing way.
> > "a whimsical sense of humor"
> >
> > No, not that.
> >
> > 2.
> > acting or behaving in a capricious manner.
> > "the whimsical arbitrariness of autocracy"
> >
> > Yes, exactly that. You read people's answers and then pronounce upon
> > them in accordance with your thinking, which we're not party to
> > because you rarely if ever reveal it.
>
> See? I meant it even slightly differently. From wiktionary:
>
> Given to whimsy; capricious; odd; peculiar; playful; light-hearted or amusing.
>
> For me, it's something between odd, peculiar, playful and amusing.
> I *know* it's some kind of emergent behaviour, and not ill-intentioned
> at all. It makes (for me) interaction more difficult, but more
> enriching at the same time. And somewhat joyful. So there you go.
>
> > As an example, you wrote above:
> >
> > > >>I already have blkid and lsblk. They are obviously designed for
> > > >>different purposes. They both _can_ supply the desired information.
> > > >>Neither is ideal for me.
> >
> > with not a hint of what would be ideal.
>
> Context. I once had a boss who functioned as Richard does. He had
> a very complicated context in his mind, and when posing a question,
> he offered lots of hints, but with some regularity not those his
> interlocutors needed. Once I got over that I learnt that this kind
> of interaction can be enriching and fun.
There's context here too: we're not meeting face to face,
nor in private, nor is Richard the boss and this list his employees.
> People are quite different, and that is a Good Thing :)
>
> > Right. So are we meant to spend time looking for different commands
> > which, importantly, must reveal must either reveal more information
> > or the same information in a different way, in order that perchance
> > it might be more ideal for you?
>
> You always have the choice to throw up your hands (as I did in this
> case).
>
> [...]
>
> > Oh, so my question above was wrong. We're expected to find _all_
> > commands, regardless of whether they might be more ideal or not.
>
> Don't take that personally. I don't think it's meant like that
> (Richard: I'm taking the liberty of second-guessing you. I hope
> you set me straight if I'm too wrong!).
Well, we're probably wasting our time anyway. If you take a look at
https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2016/11/msg00234.html
there's a productive command there that the OP has already forgotten,
which AIUI reads the files that I mentioned (though I stand to be
corrected; does /run contain the db that udevadm interrogates,
or is there a yet deeper db?).
Cheers,
David.
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