Re: Briefly document whitespace handling in sort

[Eric Blake]

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According to The Wanderer on 12/7/2005 11:26 AM:
> I was tripped up by the fact that it is not indicated anywhere in the
> provided documentation that the character count of a field, for the '-k'
> option, is counted from the beginning of the preceding whitespace. The
> attached patch adds to the usage message a somewhat terse note
> explaining the situation.
> 
> If there's anything wrong with or otherwise objectionable about this,
> don't hesitate to let me know; I'll either fix it if I can or attempt to
> explain why I don't think it's a problem.

Usually a patch needs a ChangeLog entry accompanying it.  Other than that,
now you just wait for someone with write access (ie. Jim or Paul) to
decide to incorporate your patch.

> Index: src/sort.c
> ===================================================================
> RCS file: /cvsroot/coreutils/coreutils/src/sort.c,v
> retrieving revision 1.328
> diff -u -u -r1.328 sort.c
> --- src/sort.c        7 Oct 2005 18:48:28 -0000       1.328
> +++ src/sort.c        7 Dec 2005 18:23:37 -0000
> @@ -331,9 +331,10 @@
>        fputs (_("\
>  \n\
>  POS is F[.C][OPTS], where F is the field number and C the character 
> position\n\
> -in the field.  OPTS is one or more single-letter ordering options, which\n\
> -override global ordering options for that key.  If no key is given, use 
> the\n\
> -entire line as the key.\n\
> +in the field.  If neither the -t nor the -b option is in effect, the 
> characters\n\
> +in a field are counted from the beginning of the preceding whitespace.  OPTS 
> is\n\
> +one or more single-letter ordering options, which override global ordering\n\
> +options for that key.  If no key is given, use the entire line as the key.\n\
>  \n\
>  SIZE may be followed by the following multiplicative suffixes:\n\
>  "), stdout);

- --
Life is short - so eat dessert first!

Eric Blake             address@hidden
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