Re: od -tx1|-tx2|-to1|-to2 output problem

[Jim Meyering]

"Howland Craig D (Craig)" <address@hidden> wrote:
> Thanks to both Jim and Bob for the answer.  Using -v gives the behavior
> that I was expecting (and shows that there is not a problem with od,
> except for what I would consider to be an odd default--which we're stuck
> with for the historical reasons given).
>
> I do have one suggestion/request, though:  please explain this behavior
> better in the man page.  Both explanations are good, but they came from
> the info page.  I don't know how most people go about it, but I rarely
> use info, using man as normal practice.  Not being an old-time power
> user of od, the man page entry of
>       "-v, --output-duplicates
>               do not use * to mark line suppression"
> meant nothing to me--and with no other mention in the man page of line
> suppression it wouldn't.  Given the bizarre default of suppressing
> output,
> I suggest that the better info entry for -v is worth pulling into the
> man page.

Sorry, but od's --help output (and man page generated from that) is
already one of the longest.  It is designed to be a *quick* reference.
If we start pulling in full option explanations, it would be less
useful in general.  We can only hope that people will learn to heed
the "SEE ALSO" reference:

       The full documentation for od is maintained as a  Texinfo  manual.   If
       the  info and od programs are properly installed at your site, the com-
       mand

              info coreutils od

       should give you access to the complete manual.