Subject: bug#9939: Problems with the SIZE description in man pages for <ls> and <du>

From: Paul Eggert <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 15 Nov 2011 08:32:55 -0800

On 11/15/11 07:29, abdallah clark wrote:
> Maybe it's a manpower issue

We are short of people and time, yes.  I've found your
comments to be helpful in pointing out places where the
--help output (man pages) could be clearer.  We've fixed the SIZE sentence
and I'd like to go onto the next issue.  In your long message
about this <http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=9939#17>
you write:

  Also, when I run <ls -alsi --si>, the results have <K> or <M> or <G>
  as a suffix on the filesize amounts, but the similar command <ls
  -alsih> gives <k> or <m> or <g>.

That's not the behavior I get.  First, I get uppercase M and G with
either option set.  Second, I get lowercase k with --si, and uppercase
K with -h.  But this is because SI uses lowercase k, whereas binary
prefixes use uppercase K (yes, it's silly, but it's standard :-).

The above quotation seems to be more a complaint about the *behavior*
than about the *documentation*, and so I hope I've explained the
behavior.  This explanation is also in the full manual.  I don't
see a need for correcting the --help output (man pages) as they're
intended to be succinct summaries of the full manual, more reminders
to the expert than introduction to novices as it were.