Re: strings should be dumb

[Nicholas Clifton <nickc at redhat dot com>]

Hi Greg,

> It has come to my attention that strings is smart.  strings should be
> dumb.  The default behavior should be changed to the behavior when -a is
> specified today.  The datasection_only behavior should be eliminated
> entirely.  strings should not link against bfd.

Sorry but no.  If you want a dumb strings program then use "od -S 4". 
If you want a strings that is not linked against the bfd library then 
use eu-strings.  If neither of these options appeal then write your own 
program.

Alternatively help us make strings better.  If there are security holes 
then please report them on the mailing list or the bugzilla system. 
(Note - several security holes have been fixed in the last few days...) 
 If you want a strings program that defaults to a dumb behaviour then 
create a configure-time patch that enables this and submit it for review.

The GNU projects are about enablement, not restrictions.  Sometimes this 
does encourage feature creep, and sometimes forks are created with this 
specific goal of reducing bloat.  But as far as I am concerned, for now 
the GNU Binutils are good, and they do not need dumbing down.

Cheers
  Nick