[GTALUG] Debian user[add|del] and [add|del]user

Ivan Avery Frey ivan.avery.frey at gmail.com
Sat Apr 2 14:05:45 UTC 2016


My syntax in the subject heading was incorrect. I thought I could use man
page syntax, but the square brackets indicate an optional string.

If I were to use regular expressions, the low-level commands and
recommended commands would look like this:

{"user"}{"add"|"del"} and {"add"|"del"}{"user"}

which I would shorten to user{add|del} and {add|del}user.

Does anyone know of a better syntax?

On Thu, 31 Mar 2016 at 08:31 El Fontanero <el.fontanero at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 30/03/16 02:19 PM, Ivan Avery Frey wrote:
>
> In Debian useradd and userdel are low level utilities and their man pages
> recommend that administrators use adduser and deluser.
>
> I've found a way to differentiate between the low level utilities and the
> recommended ones.
>
> The low level utilities use "Latin" order where the verb component comes
> after the object and the recommended commands the other way around.
>
> So the recommended commands' syllables' order matches that of our everyday
> language while the low level utilities' syllables' order matches that of a
> "dead" language.
>
>
> Quod erat demonstrandum, eh Ivan?
>
> Beats going to the man pages every time I need one of them ;-)
>
> CHeers,
> Mik
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