Re: "ls" spacing between columns

[Jim Meyering]

"Jordan Russell" <address@hidden> wrote:
> Jim Meyering wrote:
>> Yes, it's possible, if that behavior is controlled by a new option,
>> but it's hard to justify adding new options to ls.
>
> May I ask why such behavior would have to be "optional"?

Well, I see what you mean.
You'd like it to be the default.
But some people will prefer to have more horizontal space for file names,
so then they'd want a new option for that.

What we really need is an overall --format=S option.
Then anyone could roll his/her own.
Eventually, someone will find the time to write the code for --format,
but until then, I'm trying to avoid adding new, format-related options.

If enough people express preference for a different default format,
then it might make sense to change.

> only a single space separating the columns. It seems especially tight when
> listing a file with a numeric uid/gid:
>
> -rw-r--r--  1 123 456 5 Apr 10 18:15 test

I don't often use ls's --numeric-uid-gid (-n) option -- or otherwise
see such listings, so I don't have strong feelings about the format.