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Wheeler: Fixing Unix/Linux/POSIX FilenamesWheeler: Fixing Unix/Linux/POSIX FilenamesPosted Mar 25, 2009 23:34 UTC (Wed) by dwheeler (guest, #1216)In reply to: Wheeler: Fixing Unix/Linux/POSIX Filenames by clugstj Parent article: Wheeler: Fixing Unix/Linux/POSIX Filenames
Sure, almost all files already follow these conventions. Except when they don't. And when they don't, millions of programs subtly stop working. Everyone who does "find . blah | stuff" is writing bad code, because filenames can contain newlines deep in the directory tree. If we get rid of the nonsense, then it's easy to write correct programs; today, it takes herculean effort, and few people do so. It's a double-edged sword, but users get cut by both sides. I have yet to find a real use case for including control characters in filenames, for example, but plenty of reasons why it shouldn't ever happen.
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