[fsckboy]

>fta: first-line comments of the form <comment delimiter> ln <link name> in files which needed to be symlinked.

if you're talking about symlinks, you ought to say "ln -s" shouldn't you?

(also, I think this is the tip of another iceberg: learn to say "link" when you mean "hardlink" because that's what a link is in unix filesystem. not saying "stamp out hardlink", I'm saying if you feel comfortable using it correctly yourself, it will help you help other people to disambiguate what they say and not get progressively sloppier. you may not like what these words mean, but that ship is well at sea)

[kstrauser]

I disagree with the latter. You're correct, but I think it overlooks human factors. If I can say or write one more syllable and remove all shadow of a doubt that I do, in fact, mean a hard link, then that's a syllable well spent. Until we can get 100% of people to immediately think of the hard link concept when someone says "link" in a Unix context, not spelling it out leaves too much room for misinterpretation.

[fsckboy]

you misunderstand.

you are overlooking the human factor I pointed out: you have no idea if the other person has removed the ambiguity from what they said. My point was to be comfortable with the correct language yourself so you'll more easily spot slip-ups, not to mention be able to read docs. I specifically said not trying to stamp out hardlink.

>Until we can get 100% of people to immediately think of the hard link concept

that's not the goal (being impossible). my goal is to get OP to be cleaner in his doc, and for anybody who cares to be cleaner in their usage.

[JoshTriplett]

Not using "link" to mean "symlink" is certainly a reasonable improvement. But using "link" to mean "hardlink" (outside of a context like "the link system call") creates the possibility of ambiguity.

You're suggesting "being comfortable with the correct language", but if it is not already the case that almost everyone means "hardlink" when they say "link", then it's not "the correct language". Your mental mappings should reflect actual language as actually used, so that you can understand and be understood. Those mappings should include knowledge of the ambiguity.

"hardlink" unambiguously means "hardlink" (modulo rare mistakes)

"symlink" unambiguously means "symlink" (modulo rare mistakes)

"link" means "probably hardlink, but possibly symlink being referred to sloppily, or possibly referring to the category that includes both; generally ambiguous without further contextual information".

[fsckboy]

the position you are advocating leads precisely to TFA which has it precisely wrong, that's why I went to the trouble to write a comment that makes people think. I don't need to hear a detailed counter argument for the status quo ante, just write "we'll just thoughtlessly do it the same shitty way you're arguing against"

[JoshTriplett]

No, as mentioned I am not suggesting using "link" to mean "symlink". I am suggesting being aware that not everyone (speaker or listener) will have the word "link" mapped unambiguously to "hardlink", and that if you hear "hardlink" it's likely the speaker means "hardlink", while if you hear "link" you can't be quite as sure.

In other words: I am advocating against deleting error-correcting bits from language, because language is a noisy channel and error-correcting bits help reduce errors.

[fsckboy]

thank you for describe the shitty status quo way again, you've finally convinced me my ideas are pointless

[immibis]

Should we also say unlink instead of delete?

[fsckboy]

unlinking is what you are doing: deletion only takes place when you unlink the last link, so yes, great idea, that's why the syscall is called unlink() https://www.man7.org/linux/man-pages/man2/unlink.2.html and the command is not called delete, but rm=remove