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Comment by burntsushi

8 hours ago

Yeah the name collision is unfortunate, but probably fine. The name Biff was just too good to pass up.

The name comes from the fact that Biff is a character in Back to the Future, and it rhymes with Jiff[1]. Jiff is the datetime library that Biff uses.

"Make like a tree and get out of here!" https://www.youtube.com/shorts/9Jabplo2pZU

[1]: https://github.com/BurntSushi/jiff

27 comments

burntsushi

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throw0101c  8 hours ago

> Yeah the name collision is unfortunate, but probably fine. The name Biff was just too good to pass up.

So if I do an "apt install biff" on Debian (or Ubuntu) what will happen?

* https://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=biff

If I type in "biff" on a Debian CLI, what should I expect the behaviour of the program that is executed to be? Will it be something about mail or time?

m463  4 hours ago

> Yeah the name collision is unfortunate, but probably fine.

collisions, lol

  % apt-cache search biff
  biff - a mail notification tool
  gnubiff - mail notification program for GNOME (and others)
  wmbiff - Dockable app that displays information about mailboxes
  xlbiff - mail notification pop-up with configurable message scans

(along with 9 more matches without biff in command name)

  • dredmorbius  3 hours ago

    Those are:

    1. Not precise name collisions.

    2. All mail-notification utilities, as was the original biff.

    And since we're mentioning Debian, it has a policy requiring unique names within the Debian archive to be unique. Precedence goes to the earlier software packaged. Installed programs must also have unique names within a given system. The datetime Swiss army knife utility discussed here violates both policies.

    As Debian policy is used both for Debian and derived distros (see: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Linux_distributions#De...> for a partial listing), it has considerable influence.

eb0la  7 hours ago

It was a great opportunity to name a unix tool "mcfly" or just "Marty" for time manipulation. Better luck next time, I guess.

jacobobryant  4 hours ago

As the author of a different project also named Biff, I do have to warn you that half the comments on your HN posts will be people quoting back to the future--though I haven't decided yet if that's annoying or an engagement hack!

[1] https://github.com/jacobobryant/biff

hk1337  6 hours ago

Griff is still available for future projects or Buford if you create a throwback project.