Re: [wmii] snap: 20060316

On Thu, Mar 16, 2006 at 12:16:56PM +0100, Sander van Dijk wrote:
>> -L is POSIX compliant, maybe your findutils are too old.
> That is true, -L was added to GNU find somewhere in 4.2.xx.
> Debian Sarge has the same issue, since it uses 4.1.20 too.

>> Even OpenBSD 3.7 got -L... But in the end Georg's original > version was more portable.
> True, and I believe that version should therefore be the default one.
> Just because -L is POSIX compliant does not mean it HAS to be used,
> especially if it is known to break things on not so uncommon distro's;
> the default install should be as failsafe as possible.
> I suggest to re-add Georg's version, and leave the find -L one in
> wmiirc commented, so that people who want the speed increase and have
> a find that can handle it only need to uncomment it.

I havent' see Georg's one in the list archives, but the one I posted can
be trivially fixed by dropping the -L and changing -type f to \! -type
d. The only problem with that is that symlinks to non- -x files and
broken symlinks will show up in the list, as the permissions check will
be on the symlink (which at least on Linux is always 0777) not the
targetted file.

On the other hand, the \! -type d form avoids a whole bunch of potential
readlinks, at the cost of broken symlinks and unexecable symlinks
showing up in the list.

So for speed, drop the -L anyway, and use \~ -type d. For _correctness_
with a POSIX find, the -L form is the most accurate. (Well, barring the
issue that u+x doesn't imply that _you_ can execute the file, just the
file owner. I couldn't solve this one from the GNU find manpage, it has
a way which I really doubt is portable.)

The main issue to my mind is to avoid multiple find invocations, with
a long path that will _really_ add up.

-- 
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Paul "TBBle" Hampson, BSc, MCSE
On-hiatus Asian Studies student, ANU
The Boss, Bubblesworth Pty Ltd (ABN: 51 095 284 361)
Paul.Hampson_AT_Anu.edu.au
"No survivors? Then where do the stories come from I wonder?"
-- Capt. Jack Sparrow, "Pirates of the Caribbean"
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