Designing Good Linux Applications

An Anonymous Coward writes: "A guy from IBM's Linux Impact Team in Brazil has written a guest column on Linux and Main describing how applications should integrate with Linux. It's Red Hat-centric, but there is a lot of material about the FHS and LSB that most users probably don't know."

It would be cool if Compaq had such a team...

[WIAKywbfatw]

...'cos the common abbreviation for a Compaq Linux Impact Team would be interesting.

(Apologies in advance to all /. readers who have no Y chromosone and/or who don't appreciate South Park-style humour.)

A couple more tips:

[Genghis Troll]

Try to use the word "fuck" in your code:

[mojo]:/usr/src/linux :grep -ir fuck *
Documentation/DocBook/kernel-locking.tmpl: If you don't see why, please stay the fuck away from my code.
Documentation/DocBook/kernel-locking.tmpl: <title>The Fucked Up Sparc</title>
arch/i386/kernel/mtrr.c:/* Some BIOS's are fucked and don't set all MTRRs the same! */
arch/sparc/kernel/head.S: /* XXX Fucking Cypress... */
arch/sparc/kernel/process.c: /* fuck me plenty */
arch/sparc/kernel/sunos_ioctl.c: /* Binary compatibility is good American knowhow fuckin' up. */
arch/sparc/kernel/ptrace.c:/* Fuck me gently with a chainsaw... */
arch/mips/kernel/irixelf.c:#if 0 /* XXX No fucking way dude... */
arch/mips/kernel/irixioctl.c: * irixioctl.c: A fucking mess...
arch/mips/sgi/kernel/setup.c: * fucking with the memory controller because it needs to know the
arch/sparc64/kernel/process.c: /* fuck me plenty */
arch/sparc64/kernel/traps.c: /* Why the fuck did they have to change this? */
arch/sparc64/kernel/binfmt_aout32.c: /* Fuck me plenty... */
arch/sparc64/mm/init.c: /* Fucking losing PROM has more mappings in the TLB, but
arch/mips64/sgi-ip22/ip22-setup.c: * fucking with the memory controller because it needs to know the
arch/parisc/kernel/signal.c: printk("fuckup in sys_rt_sigreturn, sending SIGSEGV\n");
arch/parisc/kernel/signal.c: /* ARGH! Fucking brain damage. You don't want to know. */
arch/parisc/kernel/signal.c: printk("fuckup in setup_rt_frame, sending SIGSEGV\n");
drivers/net/sunhme.c:/* Only Sun can take such nice parts and fuck up the programming interface
drivers/net/sunhme.c: /* This card is _fucking_ hot... */
drivers/char/drm/drmP.h:extern int DRM(release_fuck)(struct inode *inode, struct file *filp);
drivers/scsi/esp.c: * how bad the target and/or ESP fucks things up.
drivers/scsi/esp.c: * phase things. We don't want to fuck directly with
drivers/scsi/esp.c: /* Be careful, we could really get fucked during synchronous
drivers/scsi/qlogicpti.h:/* Am I fucking pedantic or what? */
drivers/scsi/NCR53C9x.c: * how bad the target and/or ESP fucks things up.
drivers/scsi/NCR53C9x.c: /* Be careful, we could really get fucked during synchronous
drivers/sound/aci.c:/* The four ACI command types are fucked up. [-:
drivers/cdrom/sbpcd.c: blkdev_dequeue_request(req); /* task can fuck it up GTL */
drivers/ide/cmd640.c: * These chips are basically fucked by design, and getting this driver
fs/binfmt_aout.c: /* Fuck me plenty... */
fs/jffs/intrep.c: don't fuck up. This is why we have
fs/intermezzo/presto.c: printk("fucked dentry: %p\n", dentry);
include/linux/netfilter_ipv4/ipt_limit.h : /* Ugly, ugly fucker. */
include/linux/netfilter_ipv6/ip6t_limit.h: /* Ugly, ugly fucker. */
include/asm-mips/mmu_context.h:/* Fuck. The f-word is here so you can grep for it :-) */
include/asm-sparc64/system.h: /* If you fuck with this, update ret_from_syscall code too. */ \
include/asm-mips64/unistd.h:/* These are here for sake of fucking lusercode living in the fucking believe
include/asm-mips64/unistd.h: having to fuck around with the syscall interface themselfes. */
include/asm-parisc/spinlock.h: * writers) in interrupt handlers someone fucked up and we'd dead-lock
lib/vsprintf.c: * Wirzenius wrote this portably, Torvalds fucked it up :-)
net/core/netfilter.c: /* James M doesn't say fuck enough. */
net/ipv4/netfilter/ip_conntrack_core.c:/* This is fucking braindead. There is NO WAY of doing this without
net/ipv4/netfilter/ipt_limit.c: * Alexey is a fucking genius?
net/ipv4/netfilter/ip_nat_helper.c:/* Grrr... SACK. Fuck me even harder. Don't want to fix it on the
net/ipv4/netfilter/ip_nat_snmp_basic.c: * (And this is the fucking 'basic' method).
net/ipv6/netfilter/ip6t_limit.c: * Alexey is a fucking genius?

If you can't work "fuck" in, then try for "shit", "cock", "ass", or even "penis". These words are all also found in the linux kernel source. There are, of course, no references to "pussy", "vagina", "cunt", or even "clit".

The quote of the moment

[Faux_Pseudo]

That's the thing about people who think they hate computers. What they really hate is lousy programmers. - Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle in "Oath of Fealty"

That is what I found in the fortune at the bottem of the this thread.

Designing Linux Applications

[zapfie]

Designing good Linux applications is easy as 1, 2, 3. Just follow these simple steps.

1) Command line only. We all know real users only use command line.
2) Don't comment your source code. Ever. It just wastes valuable programming time.
3) No installation/usage documentation. If they deserved to use your app, they can go figure it out themselves. What are you, tech support?

If you follow these simple instructions, you are guaranteed a rabid cult following, or at the very least a feeling of superiority over your users.
</sarcasm>