[floren]

if this wanton abuse of cat(1) doesn't stop, we're on track to run out of PIDs by 2031! Just because Unix makes it cheap and easy to fork doesn't mean you have to!

(who gives even a single shit, my god)

[copperx]

I like piping the output of cat and the mental image of one process feeding another. It's inconsequential, but it brings an epsilon of joy.

[adrian_b]

You have exactly the same mental image if you start a pipeline in the right way, with a file redirection: "<input_file cmd1 | cmd2 | cmd3 ...".

This adds the joy of doing only what is really needed, without extraneous effort.

Moreover, in this way the start of a pipeline becomes symmetrical to its end, which frequently is an output redirection.

[djtriptych]

same I just like monads lol. cat + pipe feels purer and has lower mental load for me, which dominates the efficiency of spawning an extra process for, typically, a few microseconds.

[witrak]

Exactly. It allows for a consistent pattern:

cmd1 | cmd2 | cmd3 | ... | cmdn

[floralhangnail]

Is this a dig at IPv6?

[collabs]

Everything reminds me of her (IPv6) T_T

Edit: for context my home router is a TP Link and for some reason it has IPv6 disabled completely and I'm too scared to enable it.

[floren]

Definitely not, I like IPv6.