Subject: bug#8103: NUL terminated lines

From: Jim Meyering <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2011 08:43:59 +0100

Bjartur Thorlacius wrote:
>> Maybe we should modify tac to add the -z option.  Would you care to
> write a patch?
> It would be redundant, as tac -s $'\0' is equivalent.

Are you using a non-GNU version of tac?
If so, please tell us which one -- that may influence
the decision of whether to make "-s ''" work or to add -z.

With GNU tac, that has never worked:

    $ tac -s ''
    tac: separator cannot be empty

Making -s accommodate an empty string argument is a possibility,
but that change looks like it'd be relatively disruptive.

Unless there is already an implementation for which -s '' works,
I like the idea of adding -z.