GNU bug report logs - #32242
dd help text lacks information about binary prefixes

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From: Pádraig Brady <P <at> draigBrady.com>
To: Wodry <coreutils3422 <at> runbox.com>, 32242 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#32242: dd help text lacks information about binary prefixes
Date: Sat, 21 Jul 2018 14:04:10 -0700

On 21/07/18 13:36, Wodry wrote:
> Am 21.07.2018 um 21:43 schrieb Pádraig Brady:
>> We should update truncate(1) etc. to be consistent if making this change.
> 
> truncate uses function emit_size_note for size help text, as do:
> 
> git/coreutils/src$ grep -r emit_size_note
> 
> system.h:emit_size_note (void)
> truncate.c:      emit_size_note ();
> split.c:      emit_size_note ();
> ls.c:      emit_size_note ();
> du.c:      emit_size_note ();
> df.c:      emit_size_note ();
> 
> So I would suggest to enhance the help text in function emit_size_note
> in system.h
> 
> Maybe dd could also use emit_size_note?
> 
> Should I create a patch (in a seperate bug report) for emit_size_note,
> or do You want to do that?

If you prepared a single patch to cover all, that would be great.
Note also there is a shared note in coreutils.texi that reads:

  SIZE may be, or may be an integer optionally followed by,
  one of the following multiplicative suffixes:
          ‘KB’ =>           1000 (KiloBytes)
          ‘K’  =>           1024 (KibiBytes)
          ‘MB’ =>      1000*1000 (MegaBytes)
          ‘M’  =>      1024*1024 (MebiBytes)
          ‘GB’ => 1000*1000*1000 (GigaBytes)
          ‘G’  => 1024*1024*1024 (GibiBytes)
  and so on for ‘T’, ‘P’, ‘E’, ‘Z’, and ‘Y’.

There are individual notes on the options in the df man page etc.
This needs to be carefully considered.
Perhaps an additional note in the info docs is best for now?

cheers,
Pádraig

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