Subject: bug#5991: [bug#5958 PATCH] docs: document translation of obsolete sort syntax

From: Pádraig Brady <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2010 09:36:11 +0100

On 20/04/10 23:33, Eric Blake wrote:
> * doc/coreutils.texi (sort invocation): Mention the conversion.
> ---
> 
> How about this followup, copying the comment from PÃ¡draig's patch into
> our documentation?
> 
>  doc/coreutils.texi |    5 +++++
>  1 files changed, 5 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/doc/coreutils.texi b/doc/coreutils.texi
> index 7561f2a..ed620f3 100644
> --- a/doc/coreutils.texi
> +++ b/doc/coreutils.texi
> @@ -4126,6 +4126,11 @@ sort invocation
>  @vindex POSIXLY_CORRECT
>  On older systems, @command{sort} supports an obsolete origin-zero
>  syntax @samp{+@var{pos1} [-@var{pos2}]} for specifying sort keys.
> +The sequence @samp{sort +@var{a}.@var{x} -@var{b}.@var{y}}
> +translates to @samp{sort -k@var{a+1}.@var{x+1},@var{b}} if @var{y}
> +is @samp{0} or absent, otherwise it translates to @samp{sort
> +-k@var{a+1}.@var{x+1},@var{b+1}.@var{y}}.

Looks good.
Hopefully this will encourage people to change from the old to new format.
Perhaps s/translates/is equivalent/; s/-k/-k /;

cheers,
Pádraig.