Re: dd: add 'skip_bytes' and 'count_bytes' operands

[Jérémy Compostella]

First, thank you  Eric for the explanation and the guidance.

[...]

> On 02/08/2012 03:14 PM, Jérémy Compostella wrote:

> Not too bad. A variation to tagging the number directly, would be to

> add flags:

> 

>  iflag=skip_bytes # Treat skip as number of bytes not blocks

>  iflag=count_bytes # Treat count as number of bytes not blocks

>  oflag=seek_bytes # Treat seek as number of bytes not blocks

> 

> While cleaner it's a bit less direct.  Though since this is slightly

> off the main use case, I guess flags are OK.

I think too. Moreover, IMHO the "_bytes" and "KB_bytes" suffixes are not

really natural and although flags are indirect it looks clearer with

flags. I will re-write my patch with the flags solution.

> > 2. Do you know if there is a utility function somewhere in coreutils

> > or gnulib which could help me to parse this ? If such a function

> > exists it could be able to manage more units (bytes, kbytes,

> > megabytes, ...). If have to write such a function we have to discuss

> > the possibilities I have to provide.

> 

> All was done already. See parse_integer().

OK. I will take a look for my personal interest.

[...]

> Sorry for the churn on this, but I've not had time to think about it

> and I'm just reacting to your questions on the fly.  At least the

> decision process for the interface is documented.

It's absolutely not a problem for me to examine all the solutions even

losing time with the bad one. If you directly provided me the

appropriate solution I probably would not take time to look at the

legacy and POSIX constraints what would be a shame for me. And since I

do it on my pretty small free time and just for the pleasure, I'm not in

a hurry long and reasonable long discussion is not a problem at all.

Jérémy