GNU bug report logs - #25407
ls documentation should reflect file system atime setting

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Scott Deerwester <scott.deerwester <at> gmail.com>
To: bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org
Subject: ls documentation should reflect file system atime setting
Date: Mon, 09 Jan 2017 18:32:18 +0000

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

The -u option to ls is documented as sorting by and printing the access
time of a file instead of the modification time. This has been the
(correct) behavior for decades. In modern distributions, however, file
systems are routinely mounted with either relatime or noatime replacing
atime, which causes the -u option to fail silently and use either the
modification time (if the file system is mounted with noatime), or an
arbitrary access time (if mounted with relatime). This behavior should be
prominently documented in the man page for ls under the -u option.

[Message part 2 (text/html, inline)]

Message #10 received at 25407-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
To: Scott Deerwester <scott.deerwester <at> gmail.com>, 25407-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#25407: ls documentation should reflect file system atime
 setting
Date: Mon, 9 Jan 2017 15:18:32 -0800

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

On 01/09/2017 10:32 AM, Scott Deerwester wrote:
> This behavior should be
> prominently documented in the man page for ls under the -u option.

Thanks for mentioning the issue. Although it's worth documenting I'm not
sure it belongs in the ls man page, which is supposed to be quite terse.
Instead, I documented it in the coreutils manual (which is the primary
documentation for 'ls' anyway) by installing the attached. The first
patch is a minor cleanup, the second the real doc change.

[0001-maint-standardize-on-timestamp-as-per-POSIX.patch (application/x-patch, attachment)]

[0002-doc-cover-file-timestamps-better.patch (application/x-patch, attachment)]

Message #13 received at 25407 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Bernhard Voelker <mail <at> bernhard-voelker.de>
To: 25407 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu, scott.deerwester <at> gmail.com
Subject: Re: bug#25407: ls documentation should reflect file system atime
 setting
Date: Tue, 10 Jan 2017 20:11:55 +0100

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

On 01/10/2017 12:18 AM, Paul Eggert wrote:
> Instead, I documented it in the coreutils manual (which is the primary
> documentation for 'ls' anyway) by installing the attached. The first
> patch is a minor cleanup, the second the real doc change.

I like it, although I'd avoid to place such a general description (similar
to the node "File permissions") in the middle of the utility chapters.
The attached fixes this - okay to push?

Thanks & have a nice day,
Berny

[0001-doc-move-File-timestamps-to-a-separate-chapter.patch (text/x-patch, attachment)]

Message #16 received at 25407 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Bernhard Voelker <mail <at> bernhard-voelker.de>
To: 25407 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu, scott.deerwester <at> gmail.com
Subject: Re: bug#25407: ls documentation should reflect file system atime
 setting
Date: Tue, 10 Jan 2017 20:21:27 +0100

On 01/10/2017 12:18 AM, Paul Eggert wrote:
> The first patch is a minor cleanup [...]

... which makes the syntax-check fail:

maint.mk: you have modified old NEWS
maint.mk:1074: recipe for target 'sc_immutable_NEWS' failed
make: *** [sc_immutable_NEWS] Error 1

Have a nice day,
Berny

Message #19 received at 25407 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eric Blake <eblake <at> redhat.com>
To: Bernhard Voelker <mail <at> bernhard-voelker.de>, 25407 <at> debbugs.gnu.org,
 eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu, scott.deerwester <at> gmail.com
Subject: Re: bug#25407: ls documentation should reflect file system atime
 setting
Date: Tue, 10 Jan 2017 13:29:54 -0600

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

On 01/10/2017 01:21 PM, Bernhard Voelker wrote:
> On 01/10/2017 12:18 AM, Paul Eggert wrote:
>> The first patch is a minor cleanup [...]
> 
> ... which makes the syntax-check fail:
> 
> maint.mk: you have modified old NEWS
> maint.mk:1074: recipe for target 'sc_immutable_NEWS' failed
> make: *** [sc_immutable_NEWS] Error 1

Fixed by running 'make update-NEWS-hash'

-- 
Eric Blake   eblake redhat com    +1-919-301-3266
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org

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Message #22 received at 25407 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eric Blake <eblake <at> redhat.com>
To: Bernhard Voelker <mail <at> bernhard-voelker.de>, 25407 <at> debbugs.gnu.org,
 eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu, scott.deerwester <at> gmail.com
Subject: Re: bug#25407: ls documentation should reflect file system atime
 setting
Date: Tue, 10 Jan 2017 13:54:07 -0600

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

On 01/10/2017 01:29 PM, Eric Blake wrote:
> On 01/10/2017 01:21 PM, Bernhard Voelker wrote:
>> On 01/10/2017 12:18 AM, Paul Eggert wrote:
>>> The first patch is a minor cleanup [...]
>>
>> ... which makes the syntax-check fail:
>>
>> maint.mk: you have modified old NEWS
>> maint.mk:1074: recipe for target 'sc_immutable_NEWS' failed
>> make: *** [sc_immutable_NEWS] Error 1
> 
> Fixed by running 'make update-NEWS-hash'

I guess that's open-ended about whether I was doing the fix or leaving
it to someone else.

Here's what I'm testing:

From cafb41a22d72452f36d3129d36e3127ae0917d51 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Eric Blake <eblake <at> redhat.com>
Date: Tue, 10 Jan 2017 13:48:45 -0600
Subject: [PATCH] maint: update NEWS hash to match recent spelling fixes

Commit 4f650aad was incomplete; it changed NEWS but not the hash.

* cfg.mk (old_NEWS_hash): Update via 'make update-NEWS-hash'.
---
 cfg.mk | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/cfg.mk b/cfg.mk
index 7e28d9c..ec03974 100644
--- a/cfg.mk
+++ b/cfg.mk
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ export VERBOSE = yes
 # 4914152 9e
 export XZ_OPT = -8e

-old_NEWS_hash = 33e0d81904e66223883c8bc33c29a772
+old_NEWS_hash = 46e9780e1ed2f2df9611205e5e08b95a

 # Add an exemption for sc_makefile_at_at_check.
 _makefile_at_at_check_exceptions = ' && !/^cu_install_prog/ &&
!/dynamic-dep/'



But I haven't pushed it, since I'm still getting other unrelated
syntax-check failures:

$ make syntax-check
...
gitignore_missing
/lib/Makefile
maint.mk: Add above entries to .gitignore
cfg.mk:781: recipe for target 'sc_gitignore_missing' failed

$ make sc_gitignore_redundant
gitignore_redundant
/lib/alloca.h
/lib/ctype.h
/lib/dirent.h
/lib/errno.h
/lib/fcntl.h
/lib/float.h
/lib/fnmatch.h
/lib/getopt.h
/lib/iconv.h
/lib/iconv_open-aix.h
/lib/iconv_open-hpux.h
/lib/iconv_open-irix.h
/lib/iconv_open-osf.h
/lib/iconv_open-solaris.h
/lib/inttypes.h
/lib/langinfo.h
/lib/locale.h
/lib/math.h
/lib/netdb.h
/lib/parse-datetime.c
/lib/pthread.h
/lib/ref-add.sed
/lib/ref-del.sed
/lib/sched.h
/lib/se-context.h
/lib/se-selinux.h
/lib/signal.h
/lib/stdarg.h
/lib/stdbool.h
/lib/stddef.h
/lib/stdint.h
/lib/stdio.h
/lib/stdlib.h
/lib/string.h
/lib/termios.h
/lib/time.h
/lib/unistd.h
/lib/unistr.h
/lib/unitypes.h
/lib/uniwidth.h
/lib/wchar.h
/lib/wctype.h
maint.mk: Remove above entries from .gitignore
cfg.mk:789: recipe for target 'sc_gitignore_redundant' failed

-- 
Eric Blake   eblake redhat com    +1-919-301-3266
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org

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Message #25 received at 25407 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eric Blake <eblake <at> redhat.com>
To: Bernhard Voelker <mail <at> bernhard-voelker.de>, 25407 <at> debbugs.gnu.org,
 eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu, scott.deerwester <at> gmail.com
Subject: Re: bug#25407: ls documentation should reflect file system atime
 setting
Date: Tue, 10 Jan 2017 14:02:32 -0600

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

On 01/10/2017 01:54 PM, Eric Blake wrote:

> But I haven't pushed it, since I'm still getting other unrelated
> syntax-check failures:
> 
> $ make syntax-check
> ...
> gitignore_missing
> /lib/Makefile
> maint.mk: Add above entries to .gitignore
> cfg.mk:781: recipe for target 'sc_gitignore_missing' failed

This looks like a false positive: top-level .gitignore includes
'Makefile', which matches ALL files named Makefile at any depth
throughout the tree, and thus lib/Makefile does not need to be
additionally called out for being ignored.

I'm not sure if this is because I've built incrementally in a tree over
a long period of time, and now gnulib-tool is creating (but not
modifying) .gitignore in a different manner than it used to. I'm trying
a fresh clone to see if it reproduces from a clean environment.

-- 
Eric Blake   eblake redhat com    +1-919-301-3266
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org

[signature.asc (application/pgp-signature, attachment)]

Message #28 received at 25407 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eric Blake <eblake <at> redhat.com>
To: Bernhard Voelker <mail <at> bernhard-voelker.de>, 25407 <at> debbugs.gnu.org,
 eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu, scott.deerwester <at> gmail.com
Subject: Re: bug#25407: ls documentation should reflect file system atime
 setting
Date: Tue, 10 Jan 2017 14:11:13 -0600

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

On 01/10/2017 01:11 PM, Bernhard Voelker wrote:
> On 01/10/2017 12:18 AM, Paul Eggert wrote:
>> Instead, I documented it in the coreutils manual (which is the primary
>> documentation for 'ls' anyway) by installing the attached. The first
>> patch is a minor cleanup, the second the real doc change.
> I like it, although I'd avoid to place such a general description (similar
> to the node "File permissions") in the middle of the utility chapters.
> The attached fixes this - okay to push?

Works for me.

> -Standard POSIX files have three timestamps: the access timestamp
> -(atime) of the last read, the modification timestamp (mtime) of the
> -last write, and the status change timestamp (ctime) of the last change
> -to the the file's meta-information.  Some file systems support a


> +@node File timestamps
> +@chapter File timestamps
> +
> +@cindex atime
> +@cindex birthtime
> +@cindex ctime
> +@cindex mtime
> +Standard POSIX files have three timestamps: the access timestamp
> +(atime) of the last read, the modification timestamp (mtime) of the
> +last write, and the status change timestamp (ctime) of the last change
> +to the the file's meta-information.  Some file systems support a

Please fix the double 'the the' while moving, if I don't beat you to it
on my end, since syntax-check also flags that.

-- 
Eric Blake   eblake redhat com    +1-919-301-3266
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org

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Message #31 received at 25407 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
To: Bernhard Voelker <mail <at> bernhard-voelker.de>, 25407 <at> debbugs.gnu.org,
 scott.deerwester <at> gmail.com
Subject: Re: bug#25407: ls documentation should reflect file system atime
 setting
Date: Tue, 10 Jan 2017 12:30:41 -0800

On 01/10/2017 11:11 AM, Bernhard Voelker wrote:
> okay to push?

Sure, that sounds fine, and thanks.

Message #34 received at 25407 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eric Blake <eblake <at> redhat.com>
To: Bernhard Voelker <mail <at> bernhard-voelker.de>, 25407 <at> debbugs.gnu.org,
 eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu, scott.deerwester <at> gmail.com
Subject: Re: bug#25407: ls documentation should reflect file system atime
 setting
Date: Tue, 10 Jan 2017 15:12:21 -0600

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

On 01/10/2017 02:02 PM, Eric Blake wrote:
> On 01/10/2017 01:54 PM, Eric Blake wrote:
> 
>> But I haven't pushed it, since I'm still getting other unrelated
>> syntax-check failures:
>>
>> $ make syntax-check
>> ...
>> gitignore_missing
>> /lib/Makefile
>> maint.mk: Add above entries to .gitignore
>> cfg.mk:781: recipe for target 'sc_gitignore_missing' failed
> 
> This looks like a false positive: top-level .gitignore includes
> 'Makefile', which matches ALL files named Makefile at any depth
> throughout the tree, and thus lib/Makefile does not need to be
> additionally called out for being ignored.
> 
> I'm not sure if this is because I've built incrementally in a tree over
> a long period of time, and now gnulib-tool is creating (but not
> modifying) .gitignore in a different manner than it used to. I'm trying
> a fresh clone to see if it reproduces from a clean environment.

A fresh clone does not suffer from the same problem, so it may be
something that has changed in gnulib-tool in the meantime.  I didn't
feel like bisecting it, though, since I couldn't easily reproduce it.
I've gone ahead and pushed the syntax-check fix (both the NEWS hash and
the doubled 'the').

-- 
Eric Blake   eblake redhat com    +1-919-301-3266
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org

[signature.asc (application/pgp-signature, attachment)]

Message #37 received at 25407 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Bernhard Voelker <mail <at> bernhard-voelker.de>
To: Eric Blake <eblake <at> redhat.com>, 25407 <at> debbugs.gnu.org,
 eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu, scott.deerwester <at> gmail.com
Subject: Re: bug#25407: ls documentation should reflect file system atime
 setting
Date: Tue, 10 Jan 2017 22:19:20 +0100

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

On 01/10/2017 09:11 PM, Eric Blake wrote:
> Please fix the double 'the the' while moving, if I don't beat you to it on my end, since syntax-check also flags
> that.

Thanks for the review.  As you already fixed the sc_prohibit_doubled_word
failure, I've pushed as-is.

Have a nice day,
Berny
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