Re: uniq: missing option -W / --check-fields=N

[Eric Blake]

> uniq(1) used to have an option for checking only a certain number of 
> fields. I have since noticed that some scripts I wrote some time ago 
> have stopped working because the -W / --check-fields=N option has 
> disappeared. Can it please be put back in?

It's still there in the latest stable version, 5.96:
$ uniq --version | head -n1
uniq (GNU coreutils) 5.96
$ uniq --help | grep check
  -w, --check-chars=N   compare no more than N characters in lines

> I am happy to write a patch 
> to do so if no-one else wants to do it. Is there a reason why it 
> disappeared?

Probably because you switched systems or PATH, and are no
longer using the GNU coreutils version of uniq.

-- 
Eric Blake