GNU bug report logs - #6442
About the modifier of -k option in sort

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

From: Peng Yu <pengyu.ut <at> gmail.com>
To: bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org
Subject: About the modifier of -k option in sort
Date: Wed, 16 Jun 2010 21:07:27 -0500

Hello,

The modifiers of -k are discussed in the examples in 'info sort'
rather than in the main entry of "-k". I feel that this be improved by
clearly describe each modifier under the main entry of "-k". It is not
very clear to how many modifiers there are.

-- 
Regards,
Peng

Message #8 received at 6442 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Pádraig Brady <P <at> draigBrady.com>
To: Peng Yu <pengyu.ut <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 6442 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#6442: About the modifier of -k option in sort
Date: Thu, 17 Jun 2010 09:30:00 +0100

On 17/06/10 03:07, Peng Yu wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> The modifiers of -k are discussed in the examples in 'info sort'
> rather than in the main entry of "-k". I feel that this be improved by
> clearly describe each modifier under the main entry of "-k". It is not
> very clear to how many modifiers there are.
> 

The sort --help (man) output has been improved lately,
to group the ordering options, and these are referenced in
the detailed description of POS
You are looking at the latest version right?
Would the following be enough to highlight the info you might have missed?

--- a/src/sort.c
+++ b/src/sort.c
@@ -386,7 +386,7 @@ Other options:\n\
 "), stdout);
       fputs (_("\
   -k, --key=POS1[,POS2]     start a key at POS1 (origin 1), end it at POS2\n\
-                            (default end of line)\n\
+                            (default end of line).  See POS syntax below\n\
   -m, --merge               merge already sorted files; do not sort\n\
 "), stdout);
       fputs (_("\

Message #11 received at 6442 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Peng Yu <pengyu.ut <at> gmail.com>
To: Pádraig Brady <P <at> draigbrady.com>
Cc: 6442 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#6442: About the modifier of -k option in sort
Date: Thu, 17 Jun 2010 16:11:29 -0500

2010/6/17 Pádraig Brady <P <at> draigbrady.com>:
> On 17/06/10 03:07, Peng Yu wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> The modifiers of -k are discussed in the examples in 'info sort'
>> rather than in the main entry of "-k". I feel that this be improved by
>> clearly describe each modifier under the main entry of "-k". It is not
>> very clear to how many modifiers there are.
>>
>
> The sort --help (man) output has been improved lately,
> to group the ordering options, and these are referenced in
> the detailed description of POS
> You are looking at the latest version right?
> Would the following be enough to highlight the info you might have missed?
>
> --- a/src/sort.c
> +++ b/src/sort.c
> @@ -386,7 +386,7 @@ Other options:\n\
>  "), stdout);
>       fputs (_("\
>   -k, --key=POS1[,POS2]     start a key at POS1 (origin 1), end it at POS2\n\
> -                            (default end of line)\n\
> +                            (default end of line).  See POS syntax below\n\
>   -m, --merge               merge already sorted files; do not sort\n\
>  "), stdout);
>       fputs (_("\

Is it in the latest version? If yes, I'll install it.
coreutils-8.5.tar.xz.sig         23-Apr-2010 12:42  836

BTW, how to figure out what version of my coreutils is? I 'man sort',
it shows the following at the bottom of that page. I don't understand
7.4 is of date March 2010, it should be May 2009 according to
http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/coreutils/, right?


GNU coreutils 7.4                 March 2010                           SORT(1)


-- 
Regards,
Peng

Message #14 received at 6442 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eric Blake <eblake <at> redhat.com>
To: Peng Yu <pengyu.ut <at> gmail.com>
Cc: Pádraig Brady <P <at> draigbrady.com>, 6442 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#6442: About the modifier of -k option in sort
Date: Thu, 17 Jun 2010 15:34:19 -0600

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

On 06/17/2010 03:11 PM, Peng Yu wrote:
>> You are looking at the latest version right?
>> Would the following be enough to highlight the info you might have missed?
>>
>> --- a/src/sort.c
>> +++ b/src/sort.c
>> @@ -386,7 +386,7 @@ Other options:\n\
>>  "), stdout);
>>       fputs (_("\
>>   -k, --key=POS1[,POS2]     start a key at POS1 (origin 1), end it at POS2\n\
>> -                            (default end of line)\n\
>> +                            (default end of line).  See POS syntax below\n\
>>   -m, --merge               merge already sorted files; do not sort\n\
>>  "), stdout);
>>       fputs (_("\
> 
> Is it in the latest version? If yes, I'll install it.
> coreutils-8.5.tar.xz.sig         23-Apr-2010 12:42  836

No, the whole point of this patch is that it is for the latest
coreutils.git, which is post 8.5 (but will be in 8.6 if you like how it
is worded).

> 
> BTW, how to figure out what version of my coreutils is? I 'man sort',
> it shows the following at the bottom of that page. I don't understand
> 7.4 is of date March 2010, it should be May 2009 according to
> http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/coreutils/, right?

No, that just means that whoever pre-built coreutils 7.4 for your distro
did so in March 2010, even though they used a tarball from May 2009.
You can _always_ use 'sort --version' to find the actual version on your
machine (and using --version works for almost every GNU program out
there, the few exceptions being programs like /bin/test that have
behavior mandated by POSIX when given a single argument).

-- 
Eric Blake   eblake <at> redhat.com    +1-801-349-2682
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org

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Message #21 received at 6442-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Pádraig Brady <P <at> draigBrady.com>
To: 6442-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#6442: About the modifier of -k option in sort
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2010 01:24:47 +0100

I've applied this doc tweak:

On 17/06/10 09:30, Pádraig Brady wrote:
> --- a/src/sort.c
> +++ b/src/sort.c
> @@ -386,7 +386,7 @@ Other options:\n\
>  "), stdout);
>        fputs (_("\
>    -k, --key=POS1[,POS2]     start a key at POS1 (origin 1), end it at POS2\n\
> -                            (default end of line)\n\
> +                            (default end of line).  See POS syntax below\n\
>    -m, --merge               merge already sorted files; do not sort\n\
>  "), stdout);
>        fputs (_("\

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