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bug#15157: bug#15158: sort complains about incompatible options (that ar
From: |
Paul Eggert |
Subject: |
bug#15157: bug#15158: sort complains about incompatible options (that aren't) AND when it shouldn't |
Date: |
Wed, 21 Aug 2013 17:07:49 -0700 |
User-agent: |
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:17.0) Gecko/20130803 Thunderbird/17.0.8 |
The -g and -h options of 'sort' are indeed incompatible; they
result in different outputs.
More generally, these bug reports reargue the 'grep' bug reported here:
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-grep/2013-08/msg00017.html
and replied to here:
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-grep/2013-08/msg00018.html
Generally speaking, the GNU utilities follow the POSIX utility
syntax guidelines, in particular Guideline 11:
The order of different options relative to one another
should not matter, unless the options are documented as
mutually-exclusive and such an option is documented to
override any incompatible options preceding it.
http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/basedefs/V1_chap12.html#tag_12_02
It sounds like you're disputing the main part of this guideline
and are advocating always taking the second (exceptional) part.
It's not clear to me that this makes sense, and there are
good arguments for sticking with the more-cautious approach.