Re: [PATCH] Re: dd blocks/bytes at a time

[Jim Meyering]

Paul Eggert <address@hidden> wrote:
> Jim Meyering <address@hidden> writes:
>
>> I'm beginning to think GNU dd should at least warn about
>> the portability problem.
>
> Well, the POSIX spec is pretty clear, and the POSIX tradition is that
> option order normally should not matter.

But here we're talking about options with related functionality.
Many of those work in the last-one-specified-wins model (e.g., mv's -i
and -f, and the -H -L -P options of the hierarchy traversing tools).

> Note also that BSD dd
> rejects usages like "dd ibs=10 bs=3" where coreutils 6.7 dd silently
> conforms to POSIX.  So I'd be inclined to go with the patch I already
> submitted, and simply be compatible with Solaris (and I assume most
> other SVR4 hosts).
>
> But if we do put in a warning, I'd say the warning should be disabled
> if POSIXLY_CORRECT is set, and that it should also warn about usages
> like dd ibs=10 bs=3 that coreutils 6.7 dd accepts but BSD dd does not.

Nonetheless, I've gone ahead and applied your patch.
If someone feels strongly enough that a warning is worthwhile,
they can write the patch :-)