Re: standards/18257: POSIX.2-1992: ps(1)'s TIME column has the wrong format

[Klaus Klein <kleink%kleink.org@localhost>]

On Thu, Feb 16, 2012 at 09:55:02AM +0000, David Holland wrote:
> The following reply was made to PR standards/18257; it has been noted by 
> GNATS.
> 
> From: David Holland <dholland-bugs%netbsd.org@localhost>
> To: gnats-bugs%NetBSD.org@localhost
> Cc: 
> Subject: Re: standards/18257: POSIX.2-1992: ps(1)'s TIME column has the wrong
>  format
> Date: Thu, 16 Feb 2012 09:50:54 +0000
> 
>  On Wed, Feb 15, 2012 at 05:30:07AM +0000, Alan Barrett wrote:
>   >  Looking at the implemetation, it appears that the output from "ps 
>   >  ax" and "ps -ax" will be different.  I really dislike this.  If we 
>   >  do any sort of magic format switching, then I'd like a better way, 
>   >  and whatever we do the man page should contain a discussion of the 
>   >  tradeoffs.
>  
>  Since POSIX chose to bless System V ps and we have a Berkeley ps,
>  there's not much point in expecting (or attempting to implement) exact
>  conformance.
>  
>  If there's a real reason to want a System V ps (as opposed to
>  standards wanking) it should be a separate binary. Otherwise you end
>  up with horrors like linux's procps.

I've suggested using _CS_PATH for this before, _if_ someone really
cares sufficiently about having a System-V-ps-done-right in the
system to implement it.


- Klaus