[arch-general] [anikom15 at gmail.com: odd compress command]

[lolilolicon]

On Tue, Sep 6, 2011 at 1:44 PM, Westley Martínez <anikom15 at gmail.com> wrote:
> I don't think my previous email went through.  I apologize and disregard
> if it did.  Here is the original message:
>
> ----- Forwarded message from Westley Martínez <anikom15 at gmail.com> -----
>
> Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2011 00:44:46 -0700
> From: Westley Martínez <anikom15 at gmail.com>
> To: arch-general at archlinux.org
> Subject: odd compress command
> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.21 (2010-09-15)
>
> Hello, on my [Arch] system the compress program is actually a wrapper to
> gzip.  This has caused a test to fail for Python
> <http://bugs.python.org/issue11340>.  The bug is quite old but it is
> still relevant and I've been working on fixing it.  I'd like to ask if
> anyone knows exactly why Arch's compress program outputs .gz files and
> not .Z files.

It's a symlink /bin/compress -> gzip. I assume the gzip binary is
intended to behave as `compress` when it's called as `compress`.
Yet it fails to do so, i.e. it's a bug in gzip, IMO.

> I honestly could not find any information concerning its
> history or its rationale, and I come to this mailing-list as a last
> resort.  Likewise, I think it would be appropriate to adopt the true
> compress program or not include a compress command at all, because, as
> you can see, problems have been created.
>
> ----- End forwarded message -----
>