Subject: Re: bug#5958: Sort-8.4 bug

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2010 04:00:43 -0500 (GMT+5)

Jim Meyering writes:
> 
> [email-masked] wrote:
> > Eric Blake writes:
> >> The syntax 'sort +1' is obsolete.  You are better off rewriting your
> >
> > When you pry it from my cold dead hands...
> 
> It has been declared "obsolete" for a good reason: it is ambiguous.
> If you require that syntax, use some other sort program.
> 

What a crock.

POSIX abdicated its responsibility to fully document the sort command. This
makes the traditional documentation (i.e. the V7 man page) the most
authoritative specification for what "sort +1 -2" means. If you won't make
GNU sort behave correctly, it is time to remove it from general distribution
and let people go find a working sort command elsewhere.