bug#9531: md5sum: confusing documentation for file type output

[Reuben Thomas]

On 17 September 2011 14:15, Jim Meyering <address@hidden> wrote:
> Reuben Thomas wrote:
>> The documentation says:
>>
>> The default mode is to print a line with checksum, a character
>> indicating type (`*' for binary, `
>>  ' for text), and name for each FILE.
>>
>> There are two problems here. First, a small one: the second character
>> is a space character, which needs to be non-breaking, and preferably
>> explained, as in "` ' (a space)". If you agree, I'll make a patch for
>> the info and man page.
>
> Sure, thanks.  Though the man page renders fine for me,
> with an 80-column-wide terminal:
>
>       input  should  be a former output of this program.  The default mode is
>       to print a line with checksum, a character  indicating  type  (`*'  for
>       binary, ` ' for text), and name for each FILE.
>
> Maybe it depends on terminal width?

This is what I'm saying: with the wrong terminal width, the closing
quote is on the line after the opening line, and this is possible
because the contents of the quotes is a normal space. A non-breaking
space is needed. And preferably the explanation I suggested, since ` '
is apt to be mistaken for `'.

> However, "... indicating type" refers to "type of checksum line",
> or "type to be used for", not the type of the file.  It controls how
> md5sum opens the file, but only on systems for which O_BINARY makes
> a difference (which means it's not worth much discussion for
> unix/linux/gnu-centric documentation).

So how about something like s/indicating type/indicating the mode in
which the file should be opened (this only matters for systems which
treat text and binary files differently)/ ?

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