[Bug 446294] incorrect exit from 'ls'

[bugzilla at redhat.com]

Please do not reply directly to this email. All additional
comments should be made in the comments box of this bug report.

Summary: incorrect exit from 'ls'


https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=446294





------- Additional Comments From metcalfegreg at qwest.net  2008-05-14 15:33 EST -------
(In reply to comment #1)
> Thanks for report, the same is for upstream, rawhide and RHEL-5 coreutils. In
> source code relevant to that situation is comment 
>
I won't have a Fedora > 7 for another week, but I've confirmed upstream and RHEL-5 as 
well. If we don't wrap this before F7 goes off support, I'll either change the product ID to 
RHEL, or confirm on a later Fedora and change to that.

> /* Failure to stat a command line argument leads to
>    an exit status of 2.  For other files, stat failure
>    provokes an exit status of 1.  */
> 
> so it does mean that current behaviour is intentional. Will check a bit more
> about that - maybe change of info pages would be the best solution.
> 

OK, looking at ls.c from the GNU coreutils-6.9 tarball, I think you're right about the the 
coder's intent, and changing the info page being perhaps the best solution (with a 
possible proviso below). Here's another example, using the specific case of a missing 
subdirectory mentioned example used in info:
$ mkdir ls_test; echo $?; ls ls_test/no_dir; echo $?
0
ls: ls_test/no_dir: No such file or directory
2

The info page:
0 success
     1 minor problems (e.g., a subdirectory was not found)
     2 serious trouble (e.g., memory exhausted)

The man page is nonspecific enough to not be wrong. A change there would be nice, as 
well, as it's currently 'not even wrong' in a literal sense. :)

I think I (and the info page author?) may have been misled by the following comment in 
enum{}:
/* "ls" had a minor problem (e.g., it could not stat a directory entry).  */

Consider that in the context of this last example. I'd advocate tweaks to both enum{} 
comments, but I'd call it a fix if the info and man pages were changed.

Just for the sake of completeness: The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 6 (IEEE Std 
1003.1, 2004 Edition) provides no guidance. All they want is exit > 0 on an error:
http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/utilities/ls.html


-- 
Configure bugmail: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/userprefs.cgi?tab=email
------- You are receiving this mail because: -------
You are on the CC list for the bug, or are watching someone who is.