Subject: Re: bug#7965: file util doesn't note CRLF in troff input

From: Eric Blake <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 02 Feb 2011 13:37:59 -0700

On 02/02/2011 12:00 PM, Eric Blake wrote:
> On 02/02/2011 09:22 AM, Doug McIlroy wrote:
>> When file-5.03 and file-5.04 identify "troff or preprocessor
>> input" that contains CRLF line terminators, they fail to report 
>> the CRLF property.  While the distinction doesn't matter
>> to the groff suite, it does to other utilities.  It is wrong
>> to hide it.
> 
> Thanks for the report.  However, you reached the wrong list.  Coreutils
> does not maintain file.  And it's a shame that 'file --help' doesn't
> list a correct bug-reporting address, either - you now have two bugs to
> report once you figure out the correct reporting address (and
> unfortunately, it's hard to google for a correct address for 'filing
> file bug reports', so I don't have a quick answer for where to redirect
> this report).

Follow-up - I found a bug reporting address on
http://directory.fsf.org/project/file/, so I'm adding that in cc.

Christos, even though it appears that file is not a GNU project and is
therefore not bound by the GNU Coding Standards, you are doing your
users a disservice by having 'file --help' output to stderr and lacking
any bug reporting information, particularly since it is rather difficult
to google for file's bug reporting address.  Would you mind making the
next version of file conform a bit more to those particular points of
the GNU Coding Standards, by sending --help (and --version) to stdout,
and by adding a blurb about a bug reporting address in --help?

-- 
Eric Blake   [email-masked]    +1-801-349-2682
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org