Unified ps(1) [PSARC/2009/076 FastTrack timeout 02/16/2009]

[James Carlson]

Garrett D'Amore writes:
> First off, I really like what this case is trying to do.  But I do have 
> a possible concern:  /usr/ucb/ps could have been used with  a leading 
> "-".  E.g. /usr/ucb/ps -aux and /usr/ucb/ps aux both return the same thing.
> 
> I'd humbly suggest that if getexecname returns /usr/ucb/ps then the 
> legacy UCB behavior should be used unconditionally.
> 
> Since /usr/bin/ps never supported bare arguments, I think its reasonable 
> if it it supports the UCB syntax when no bare (no "-") options are present.
> 
> I suspect that this would give both maximum compatibility, without 
> significantly impairing the nice "familiarity" benefits that I think 
> we're hoping to achieve.
> 
> With the above change, I'll give it a +100 (okay, only 1, because that's 
> all I'm allowed.)  Without the above change, I'd be a bit more hesitant, 
> since I worry about scripts that have coded /usr/ucb/ps with a leading 
> dash ...)

+1 to the change along with Garrett's suggestion, which I understand
to be in priority order:

  /usr/ucb/ps -> only BSD flags, regardless of "-"
  "-" present -> only USL flags
  no "-" -> only BSD flags

This will make our ps work like AIX's always has, which I think is a
great advance.

-- 
James Carlson, Solaris Networking              <james.d.carlson at sun.com>
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