Re: [Bug-ddrescue] Question about "No space left on device" message

[Antonio Diaz Diaz]

Felix Ehlermann wrote:
> Especially as it is not obvious that a "log" file actually contains
> data about the state of the recovery progress, so it's easily
> considered something very optional.

Good observation. Maybe I should rename it to something so scary that no 
newbie would ever dare to run ddrescue without a logfile.

Or perhaps add a configure time option telling make to build a "newbie 
edition" of ddrescue which would require the --no-log-file option to run 
without a logfile.

No, really. :-) Suggestions are welcome. I routinely use ddrescue 
without a logfile, and already find the --force option annoying enough.

As I read once somewhere, "build a system that even a fool can use, and 
only a fool will want to use it".


> A warning to encourage new (unexperienced) users to actually read the
> documentation, if neither a log file nor the --no-log-file parameter
> has been specified, might save some people from making at least some
> of the more frequent mistakes.

... and annoy the rest of the people.

There is one thing that could perhaps encourage new users to actually 
read the documentation; translating the manual. Sadly, from the dozen or 
so projects that I maintain, only one person (Gilsan Lpuser) ever took 
the time to actually tranlate one manual[1].

[1] http://www.nongnu.org/lzip/manual/lzip_manual_fr.html


> On the other hand people seem to just copy & paste the command line
> from somewhere without further reading or understanding of what they
> are doing

And what is worse, some of the people publishing such "advice" on the 
internet have not read and understood what they are advising about.


Best regards,
Antonio.

PD. There is no need to quote the whole thread after each message.