Re: test for non perl command dependency

Not really an answer to your question, but...

I've found that in most cases checking for a minimum version isn't as useful as it seems, for one or more of the reasons below:

Distributions apply their own patches which can cause versions below your specified minimum to work fine with your programs.
Or they may take away features because they think they're not mature enough yet or cause problems.
Or they may use a from-scratch reimplementation with different version numbers

In most cases if an external tool doesn't support a feature it'll probably exit with an error when you call it, and you can just print an error at that point.

If it's really important to know in advance, do a test for the actual feature, not just a version number.

And, even though people might not read it, clearly add the dependencies to the documentation.

Comment on Re: test for non perl command dependency

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Re^2: test for non perl command dependency by leocharre (Priest) on Jul 14, 2009 at 12:47 UTC
This kinda is an answer.. xargs does have a feature that was later introduced. The --delimiter cli argument. I considered testing for that, but I thought it would be too cheesy, too hacky.. but then.. I am glad to see you suggest this. Good idea. Thank you!	[reply]