Stop using GNU extensions for stat calls

[berlincount]

On Darwin/MacOS, that stat call has a somewhat different syntax, as GNU/Linux uses GNU extensions instead of POSIX syntax.

While using gstat would be possible, this PR uses ls without GNU extensions, fixing the problem of ./start complaining about argument errors.

[arnehilmann]

Argh, even here we are in gnu/posix hell (thanks, apple); some time ago, I (obviously) replaced the posix variant of stat with the gnu version (via brew, I think):

% uname
Darwin

% stat -f "%u" /
stat: cannot read file system information for '%u': No such file or directory
  File: "/"
    ID: 100000500000018 Namelen: ?       Type: apfs
Block size: 4096       Fundamental block size: 4096
Blocks: Total: 244199454  Free: 9954358    Available: 7930721
Inodes: Total: 9223372036854775807 Free: 9223372036851371058

% stat -c "%u" /
0

[berlincount]

so, gstat? :)

please provide actionable feedback.

[arnehilmann]

so on my Mac I use the gnu stat, and thus the check with "uname" is misleading... what about something like this?

stat -c %u / >& /dev/null && STATCMD="stat -c" || STATCMD="stat -f"

[berlincount]

perfectly horrible :D doesn't really make obvious what's going on, tbh.

I consider your way of overriding the system stat risking breakage and would rather not adapt for what I'd consider "special circumstances" of your system ...

[arnehilmann]

The circumstances aren't sooo special here on my Mac: in fact the brew package manager supports replacing the ages-old posix tools with the commonly used gnu tools. So rather than relying on the system name, I prefer checking the tool directly, as one-liner or as if-then statement...

[arnehilmann]

What is your system, btw... and how does the error message looks like?

[berlincount]

... it's less a matter of 'ages-old', and more of license choice. most of the brew stuff is GNU licensed, while most of the Darwin-stuff is based on BSD tools, which you'll also find on *BSD.

My system is a current MacOS Mojave with brew.

~/src/github.com/arnehilmann/markdeck/example$ ./start
stat: illegal option -- c
usage: stat [-FlLnqrsx] [-f format] [-t timefmt] [file ...]
./start: line 5: [: -eq: unary operator expected
stat: illegal option -- c
usage: stat [-FlLnqrsx] [-f format] [-t timefmt] [file ...]
Recreating example_markdeck_1 ...
[...]

I think it would be better to not rely on GNU extensions altogether. Hmm.

[arnehilmann]

My system is a current MacOS Mojave with brew.

same here

I think it would be better to not rely on GNU extensions altogether. Hmm.

yes... and no: the standard stat tool on linux systems is the gnu version, not bsd. so the scaffold script should work with 1) stat (gnu: linux, macOS with gnu tools replacing bsd tools, [windows?]) 2) stat (bsd: macos-vanilla) 3) gstat (gnu: macOS with gnu tools added)

sigh

[berlincount]

Fixed ;)