Re: [PATCH] CodingGuidelines: document which output goes to stdout vs. stderr

> On Wed, Dec 01, 2021 at 12:32:14AM -0500, Eric Sunshine wrote:
> > It has long been practice in this project for a command to emit its
> > primary output to stdout so that it can be captured to a file or sent
> > down a pipe, and to emit "chatty" messages (such as those reporting
> > progress) to stderr so that they don't interfere with the primary
> > output. However, this idiomatic Unix practice is not necessarily
> > universally understood and may be at odds with other schools of thought,
> > such as the somewhat common one that only error messages should go to
> > stderr, and all other messages to stdout. Let's help newcomers by
> > documenting how stdout and stderr are used on this project.
>
> I agree with everything you wrote here and below, which I think captures
> what we want to communicate to folks adding new messages or commands.
>
> I am not quite sure _everyone_ would agree with "this idiomatic Unix
> practice" above. It does seem to be a matter of taste (it is just that
> what you wrote very much agrees with my taste :) ). And "idiomatic Unix
> practice" is probably not to be chatty at all, but I think that has been
> changing over the years.
>
> So I'm not sure if your commit message is being nicely assertive about
> its taste, or is being uncharitable to people who may have different
> tastes (but again, IMHO we should pick a direction and this seems like
> the best one to me). :)