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Re: "ls" spacing between columns
From: |
Jordan Russell |
Subject: |
Re: "ls" spacing between columns |
Date: |
Sat, 10 Apr 2004 18:34:08 -0500 |
Jim Meyering wrote:
> Yes, it's possible, if that behavior is controlled by a new option,
> but it's hard to justify adding new options to ls.
May I ask why such behavior would have to be "optional"?
For many, many years (at least a decade IIRC) "ls" fleshed out the user and
group name columns to 8 characters. Typically this resulted in there being
several spaces worth of padding between the columns, which made listings
quite readable -- it was very easy to tell the columns apart at a glance.
Now the column widths are determined dynamically -- and that's a great step
forward -- but it has come at a cost of readability, since there's often
only a single space separating the columns. It seems especially tight when
listing a file with a numeric uid/gid:
-rw-r--r-- 1 123 456 5 Apr 10 18:15 test
(Quick! What's the size of that file?)
I guess I fail to see what the "downside" is here. The suggested change
strikes me as a reasonable compromise between the old and the new behaviors.
(And again, not that it counts for much, but BSD's "ls" already does the
same thing.)
Jordan Russell
Re: "ls" spacing between columns, Jim Meyering, 2004/04/10
- Re: "ls" spacing between columns,
Jordan Russell <=