GNU bug report logs - #34488
Add sort --limit, or document workarounds for sort|head error messages

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From: 積丹尼 Dan Jacobson <jidanni <at> jidanni.org>
To: Eric Blake <eblake <at> redhat.com>
Cc: 34488 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#34488: Add sort --limit, or document workarounds for sort|head error messages
Date: Sat, 16 Feb 2019 00:53:07 +0800

>>>>> "EB" == Eric Blake <eblake <at> redhat.com> writes:

>> And no fair saying "just save the output" (could be big) "into a file
>> first, and do head(1) or sed(1) on that."

EB> If you have an app that exits noisily on write failures to an early-exit
EB> pipe, your solutions are to quit ignoring SIGPIPE, or to change the
EB> pipeline to consume all of the output instead of exiting early and
EB> causing write failure.

OK, it seems that indeed it would then be best to document:

     If you want to make sure no such errors occur on large output,
     instead of
     $ sort | head
     use
     $ sort > file; head file

as an _easy to remember_ alternative amongst the many.

And OK put this in some general place, and have the sort, etc. pages
link to it. Thanks.

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