linux-ext4 - Re: [PATCH] mke2fs: don't interact with a non tty

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Message-ID: <alpine.LFD.2.00.1403191758160.14658@localhost.localdomain>
Date:	Wed, 19 Mar 2014 18:05:20 +0100 (CET)
From:	Lukáš Czerner <lczerner@...hat.com>
To:	Phillip Susi <psusi@...ntu.com>
cc:	Andreas Dilger <adilger@...ger.ca>, linux-ext4@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH] mke2fs: don't interact with a non tty

On Wed, 19 Mar 2014, Phillip Susi wrote:

> Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2014 12:04:10 -0400
> From: Phillip Susi <psusi@...ntu.com>
> To: Lukáš Czerner <lczerner@...hat.com>
> Cc: Andreas Dilger <adilger@...ger.ca>, linux-ext4@...r.kernel.org
> Subject: Re: [PATCH] mke2fs: don't interact with a non tty
> 
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> On 3/19/2014 11:16 AM, Lukáš Czerner wrote:
> > There was a discussion between me and Dave Chinner a while ago
> > about exactly this topic and he made some very good points. You as
> > a guy working with file system, or file system utilities, testing
> > them and so on will probably see a ton of the warning like that.
> > But like it, or not you're *not* the typical user - you're a
> > developer and there is a huge difference.
> 
> Whether I'm a typical user or a developer does not matter.  This is
> unix, and commands are expected to do what they are told.  If you must
> do such silly things, at the very least you need to not break scripts
> when doing it, which means if stdin is not a tty, don't assume you are
> being run by an idiot who needs hand holding and do what you've been
> told to.
> 
> Scripts and other tools like say, gparted, should not have to figure
> out every silly thing you might complain about and add a stupid
> - --yes-i-really-meant-it flag to every invocation.

You're wrong. It does matter, because the usage habits of those two
groups are entirely different and certainly mke2fs is not a tool
designed for developers.

It is a safety net for already overwhelmed sysadmins. And I do not
understand how this is breaking scripts - it has been like that for
a long time.

I agree that it is a bug that we're still asking question even though
there is not a tty attached, but as I said the right thing to do in
that case is to fail rather than blindly continue despite the checks.
If you want the latter, you can use the 'force' Luke :)

Thanks!
-Lukas

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