GNU bug report logs -
#7325
new test failure due to non-portability of printf formats like %05.3s
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Reported by: Jim Meyering <jim <at> meyering.net>
Date: Wed, 3 Nov 2010 18:56:02 UTC
Severity: normal
Done: Pádraig Brady <P <at> draigBrady.com>
Bug is archived. No further changes may be made.
Full log
Message #44 received at 7325 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):
Jim Meyering wrote:
> Paul Eggert wrote:
>> On 11/04/10 00:56, Jim Meyering wrote:
>>
>>> However, what about Eric's example?
>>>
>>> $ src/stat-p -c '_%-0 010.4:X_' k # yours
>>> _234 _
>>> $ src/stat-j -c '_%-0 010.4:X_' k # mine
>>> _0234 _
>>
>> That's simply an issue of whether the value is considered to be signed
>> or unsigned, and can be fixed by the patch at the end of this message.
>>
>> However, let me take a step back a minute. Do users really want all
>> this functionality? Personally, what I'd like to see is a single
>> format like this:
>>
>> %.3X
>>
>> that prints out the entire seconds since the Epoch, truncated
>> to millseconds. That's simpler than what we require now:
>>
>> %X.%.3:X
>>
>> The changelogs suggest that we used to do things the simpler way,
>> but changed on Oct. 21. I don't recall this being discussed: I
>
> It was due to portability concerns, since with coreutils-8.6,
> %X, %Y, etc. expanded to floating point values, and that broke
> backwards compatibility:
>
> http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.gnu.coreutils.general/161/focus=366
>
> However, enabling floating point output only when there is a ".PREC"
> part of the format sounds like a fine compromise.
> Sure, old scripts that used %.3X (expecting no ".") would break,
> but I doubt any such uses exist, since that notation did nothing useful.
>
> A patch would be most welcome.
Hi Paul,
Please let us know whether you are working on this.
This bug report was last modified 14 years and 191 days ago.
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