Re: join 5.2.1 (blank separator not accepted for arguments to -o)

[Paul Eggert]

Philip Clayton <address@hidden> writes:

> The last command works using join 4.5.3.

To get the old fashioned behavior, you can set _POSIX2_VERSION=199209
in your environment.  However, POSIX no longer requires support for
that behavior, so you might also consider updating your scripts to use
the "modern" (i.e., standardized-in-1992) syntax.

> address@hidden test]$ join -o 1.2 2.2 file1 file2
> join: too many non-option arguments

The space has to be within the option-argument following "-o".  E.g.,

  join -o '1.2 2.2' file1 file2

To help clarify this I installed the following patch:

2004-12-11  Paul Eggert  <address@hidden>

        * coreutils.texi (join invocation): Mention that blank separators
        in the -o option need to be quoted.  Problem reported by Phil Clayton.

--- coreutils.texi.~1.232.~     2004-12-10 16:05:37 -0800
+++ coreutils.texi      2004-12-11 23:18:21 -0800
@@ -4725,6 +4725,10 @@ field specification notation.
 
 The elements in @var{field-list}
 are separated by commas or blanks.
+Blank separators typically need to be quoted for the shell.  For
+example, the commands @samp{join -o 1.2,2.2} and @samp{join -o '1.2
+2.2'} are equivalent.
+
 All output lines---including those printed because of any -a or -v
 option---are subject to the specified @var{field-list}.