Re: Final point in new option of join

[Jim Meyering]

Pádraig Brady wrote:
...
> Actually there are a few more instance of that (due to me):
>
> $ grep -E "  -.*  [A-Z]" *.c | grep -v "FILE"
> base64.c:  -d, --decode          Decode data\n\
> base64.c:  -i, --ignore-garbage  When decoding, ignore non-alphabet 
> characters\n\
> base64.c:  -w, --wrap=COLS       Wrap encoded lines after COLS character 
> (default 76).\n\
> stdbuf.c:  -i, --input=MODE   Adjust standard input stream buffering\n\
> stdbuf.c:  -o, --output=MODE  Adjust standard output stream buffering\n\
> stdbuf.c:  -e, --error=MODE   Adjust standard error stream buffering\n\
> truncate.c:  -o, --io-blocks        Treat SIZE as number of IO blocks instead 
> of bytes\n\
>
> It would be nice to have a syntax-check for this, though I
> can't think of anything robust enough.  Hmm maybe if I grep man/*

Good idea.
Here's a first cut.
It would have to search only .c files.
This one currently ignores 2nd and subsequent lines of
multi-line descriptions.

# This spots a capital on a short-only line (currently only one false positive)
git grep -E '^ {0,7}-\w( ?[^ ]+)?   *[A-Z][a-z]'

# This matches lines with a long option and optional preceding short option:
git grep -E '^   {0,7}(-\w( ?[^ ]+)?, )?--[^ ]*   *[A-Z][a-z]'

NEWS:    --indicator-style=slash.  Use --file-type or
src/base64.c:  -d, --decode          Decode data\n\
src/base64.c:  -i, --ignore-garbage  When decoding, ignore non-alphabet 
characters\n\
src/base64.c:  -w, --wrap=COLS       Wrap encoded lines after COLS character 
(default 76).\n\
src/pr.c:   -D FORMAT, --date-format=FORMAT  Use FORMAT for the header date.
src/stdbuf.c:  -i, --input=MODE   Adjust standard input stream buffering\n\
src/stdbuf.c:  -o, --output=MODE  Adjust standard output stream buffering\n\
src/stdbuf.c:  -e, --error=MODE   Adjust standard error stream buffering\n\
src/stty.c:   -a, --all    Write all current settings to stdout in 
human-readable form.
src/stty.c:   -g, --save   Write all current settings to stdout in 
stty-readable form.
src/stty.c:   -F, --file   Open and use the specified device instead of stdin
src/truncate.c:  -o, --io-blocks        Treat SIZE as number of IO blocks 
instead of bytes\n\

> I also noticed that there is inconsistent indenting for some --help output.
> I'm wary of changing that though as it might add too much churn for 
> translators?
> Look at ls --help for example where multiline comments for some options are 
> not indented.

It might not matter if xgettext's fuzzy matcher can compensate.
But then maybe it's not worth changing, either.