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bug#10019: sort options -Mn are incompatible
From: |
Eric Blake |
Subject: |
bug#10019: sort options -Mn are incompatible |
Date: |
Sat, 12 Nov 2011 06:54:04 -0700 |
User-agent: |
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:7.0.1) Gecko/20110930 Thunderbird/7.0.1 |
On 11/12/2011 03:49 AM, Lars Noodén wrote:
> On 11/11/11 9:43 PM, Paul Eggert wrote:
>> On 11/11/2011 11:36 AM, Lars Noodén wrote:
>>> An additional line of clarification would go a long way in making
>>> this very useful capability more available.
>>
>> Hmm, what line would that be? We do have a tradeoff among clarity,
>> completeness, and conciseness here.
>
> Maybe something like this?
>
> -k, --key=POS1[,POS2][ORD]
> start a key at POS1 (origin 1), end it at POS2 (default
> end of line) using ordering option(s) ORD (fghMnrR)
Except you missed out on at least b and V. Also, the current wording:
-k, --key=POS1[,POS2] start a key at POS1 (origin 1), end it at POS2
(default end of line). See POS syntax below
was nice in referring to the text at the bottom:
POS is F[.C][OPTS], where F is the field number and C the character position
in the field; both are origin 1. If neither -t nor -b is in effect,
characters
in a field are counted from the beginning of the preceding whitespace.
OPTS is
one or more single-letter ordering options, which override global ordering
options for that key. If no key is given, use the entire line as the key.
In particular, -k1b,1 is different than -k1,1b, but most other OPTS can
occur in either position with no change in behavior.
I like [OPTS] slightly better than [ORD], given that you can have more
than one (as in -k1bn,1). I do agree that on the -k line, the use of
"POSn" hides the [.C][OPTS] of the text below, and that it is too easy
to think that POSn is a synonym for just the F. POSIX calls the same
thing 'keydef', so maybe:
-k --key=KEYDEF control where a key starts and ends, and give
ordering specific to the key. See KEYDEF below.
KEYDEF is F[.C][OPTS][,F[.C][OPTS]], where F is a field number and C
a character position in the field; both are origin 1. If the second
position is omitted, the key runs to the end of the line. If neither
-t nor -b is in effect, characters in a field are counted from the
beginning of the preceding whitespace. OPTS is one or more
single-letter ordering options [bdfgiMhnRrV], which override global
ordering options for that key. If no key is given, use the entire line
as the key.
--
Eric Blake address@hidden +1-801-349-2682
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org
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- bug#10019: sort options -Mn are incompatible, Lars Noodén, 2011/11/11
- bug#10019: sort options -Mn are incompatible, Bob Proulx, 2011/11/11
- bug#10019: sort options -Mn are incompatible, Pádraig Brady, 2011/11/11
- bug#10019: sort options -Mn are incompatible, Pádraig Brady, 2011/11/11
- bug#10019: sort options -Mn are incompatible, Eric Blake, 2011/11/11
- bug#10019: sort options -Mn are incompatible, Lars Noodén, 2011/11/11
- bug#10019: sort options -Mn are incompatible, Paul Eggert, 2011/11/11
- bug#10019: sort options -Mn are incompatible, Lars Noodén, 2011/11/12
- bug#10019: sort options -Mn are incompatible,
Eric Blake <=
- bug#10019: sort options -Mn are incompatible, Paul Eggert, 2011/11/12
- bug#10019: sort options -Mn are incompatible, Eric Blake, 2011/11/16
- bug#10019: sort options -Mn are incompatible, Jim Meyering, 2011/11/16
- bug#10019: sort options -Mn are incompatible, Eric Blake, 2011/11/16
- bug#10019: sort options -Mn are incompatible, Paul Eggert, 2011/11/16
- bug#10019: sort options -Mn are incompatible, Eric Blake, 2011/11/16