On Sun, Nov 9, 2014 at 10:19 AM, Jim Meyering wrote: > 2014-11-08 20:19 GMT-08:00 Jim Meyering : >> On Sat, Nov 8, 2014 at 7:52 PM, Paul Eggert wrote: >>> hex_printf_() >>> { >>> hex_printf_format=$(printf '%s\n' "$1" | sed ' >>> s/^/_/ >>> s/$/_/ ... >> Do you have time to write the complete patch? >> I'd like to make a pre-release snapshot tomorrow. > > I tried it, and found that this new function makes the multibyte-white-space > test fail with GNU sed. Here's a simplified example showing where ... I do like the idea, but now prefer to defer that until after the release. Instead, I'll address the portability issues you mentioned, with this: