Bug 90333

Summary:	The unit file "-.slice" should be renamed
Product:	systemd	Reporter:	Wayne Pollock <pollock>
Component:	general	Assignee:	systemd-bugs
Status:	RESOLVED WONTFIX	QA Contact:	systemd-bugs
Severity:	enhancement
Priority:	medium
Version:	unspecified
Hardware:	Other
OS:	All
Whiteboard:
i915 platform:		i915 features:

Description Wayne Pollock 2015-05-06 06:23:30 UTC

On Linux, try this:
 cd .../systemd/system
 grep foo *

You will get an error message from grep!  I believe the problem is that the file "-.slice" appears as a bunch of options to grep, and possibly other commands.

Desired action: rename this file to something less error-prone, maybe "0.slice".

Work-around: when in the systemd/system directory, always use "--", as in:
  grep -- foo *

Comment 1 Wayne Pollock 2015-05-06 06:27:20 UTC

I forgot to add, when searching Bugzilla for existing bugs, a search for -.slice was interpreted as "show all bugs not containing ".slice"!  Work-around: search for "-.slice" (with the quotes).

(A dash is a terrible choice as the first character in any file name.)

Comment 2 Lennart Poettering 2015-05-06 15:28:37 UTC

Well, the slices build a tree, similar to a directory tree. 

Example: foo-bar-baz.slice is a child slice of foo-bar.slice. foo-bar.slice is a child slice of foo.slice which is a child slice of -.slice. 

The "-" is used as separator here, the way "/" is used in normal directory paths. A single "/" refers to the root directory, and accordingly a single "-" refers to the root slice...

I see that it is sometimes annoying, if you do not know or use the "--" separator on command lines. However, it's also too late to change this, as this is API already. I also don't see any better character available.

Sorry, but we cannot really change this.

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