Bug 145057

Summary: SuSE has no gzcat symlink within gzip packkage
Product: [openSUSE] SUSE LINUX 10.0 Reporter: Olli Artemjev <grey-olli>
Component: BasesystemAssignee: Andreas Schwab <schwab>
Status: RESOLVED INVALID QA Contact: E-mail List <qa-bugs>
Severity: Minor    
Priority: P4 - Low    
Version: Final   
Target Milestone: ---   
Hardware: i686   
OS: SuSE Linux 10.0   
Whiteboard:
Found By: Customer Services Priority:
Business Priority: Blocker: ---
Marketing QA Status: --- IT Deployment: ---

Description Olli Artemjev 2006-01-24 00:02:43 UTC 
I've used this many years. Curious why it's missing in SuSE now:
--------------------------------------------------------------------
# gzcat /var/log/messages*.gz | grep I/O | wc -l
bash: gzcat: command not found
0
----------------- [ 02:45:31, root@skylab, ~  ]
# gz
gzexe  gzip
----------------- [ 02:45:31, root@skylab, ~  ]
# rpm -qa | grep gzip
gzip-1.3.5-144
----------------- [ 02:54:15, root@skylab, ~  ]
# cd /bin
----------------- [ 02:56:21, root@skylab, /bin  ]
# ln -s gzip gzcat
----------------- [ 02:56:36, root@skylab, /bin  ]
# gzcat /var/log/messages*.gz | grep I/O | wc -l
51
----------------- [ 02:56:47, root@skylab, /bin  ]
# ls -l /var/log/messages*
-rw-r-----  1 root root  50672 2006-01-24 02:55 /var/log/messages
-rw-r-----  1 root root 294946 2006-01-18 14:34 /var/log/messages-20060118.gz
-rw-r-----  1 root root 394106 2006-01-22 14:35 /var/log/messages-20060122.gz
-rw-r-----  1 root root 774327 2006-01-23 14:36 /var/log/messages-20060123.gz
----------------- [ 02:56:59, root@skylab, /bin  ]
#
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Though, for example, gentoo has such a thing:
--------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------- [ 02:49:11, olli@feedback, ~  ]
$ which gzcat
/bin/gzcat
----------------- [ 02:49:15, olli@feedback, ~  ]
$ epm -qf `which gzcat`
gzip-1.3.3-r4
----------------- [ 02:49:50, olli@feedback, ~  ]
$ ls -l `which gzcat`
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root 4 Jul  2  2004 /bin/gzcat -> gzip
----------------- [ 02:53:33, olli@feedback, ~  ]
$ cat /etc/gentoo-release
Gentoo Base System version 1.4.16
----------------- [ 02:53:48, olli@feedback, ~  ]
$
--------------------------------------------------------------------
As you see -  solution is just a simlink. %)
Comment 1 Andreas Schwab 2006-01-25 14:19:07 UTC 
Just use zcat, as documented in the manual page.
Comment 2 Olli Artemjev 2006-01-27 21:29:14 UTC 
Well, man allows both links. What a reason to drop gzcat link?
----------cut from man gzip
zcat is identical to gunzip -c.  (On some systems, zcat may be installed as gzcat to preserve  the original  link  to compress.)
----------cut
Comment 3 Andreas Schwab 2006-02-08 15:11:06 UTC 
zcat works fine since more than 10 years.
Comment 4 Olli Artemjev 2006-02-11 04:27:49 UTC 
I first time met linux around that time. I can't claim that gzcat worked in 1995/1996 - just don't remember, but almost sure that it's also 've similar history. 

I do not see any respectable reason to prefer to stay w/ only one type of symlink. The zcat works? Fine. gzcat also does. So what?

That is a mess, when systems are not keeping similar things on all unix-alike systems. Each time I've to configure BSD box I'm lacking same interface from well known utils (them exist but 've slightly diffrent interface, you know).
W/ some linux distros I'm starting to miss that too. :(

I'm ready to fix my opinion & habbits as needed by somthing respectable. At least I would accept w/ no complain links to LFS standard or to some other document that specifies gzcat as obsolette/invalid and/or as a thing that should be avoided from using in future environment whenever possible.

BTW: Some people 've associative memory. For me it's just simpler to remember that there's gzip and gzcat - 1st two bytes are the same.

PS: That is last time I reopen the bug. You're the developer & that is your choice to drop that symlink. I accept your right to do that. :)

As for me - I just decided to do 
# cd /bin
# ln -s gzip gzcat
So I just shut up & 'll do that on my installation each time I install SuSE. =)

/me thinks that it's time to start ~root/bin/at_new-suse-install.fix-for-me.sh
Comment 5 Andreas Schwab 2006-05-16 14:54:07 UTC 
zcat is working fine.