bug#36729: 27.0.50; Unclear total in directory listing

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Mattias Engdegård <mattiase@acm.org>
> Date: Wed, 7 Oct 2020 12:03:39 +0200
> Cc: Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org>, stephen.berman@gmx.net,
>         36729@debbugs.gnu.org
> 
> 7 okt. 2020 kl. 09.50 skrev Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>:
> 
> > I no longer understand what we are trying to solve here.
> 
> A bit lost here myself, but it seems that no real progress has been made and 
> that the original problem (how to display a meaningful 'total' value in 
> dired) is still at hand.

Yes.

> However given the apparent constraints (running an external 'ls' binary with 
> unclear semantics; uncountable platform variations; user-settable 'ls' 
> switches; sensitivity to environment variables; localised output; &c &c) I 
> don't think it can be solved in any reasonable way. I therefore propose 
> closing the bug as 'wontfix'.

You mean, we cannot even say in what units those numbers are measured?
AFAIU, the missing units were the original motivation for the bug
report.