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Re: [patch] documentation bug in tail: no mention of -n +N syntax


From: Evan Hunt
Subject: Re: [patch] documentation bug in tail: no mention of -n +N syntax
Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2006 09:20:17 -0800
User-agent: Mutt/1.5.10i

Oops, sorry, I just realized the patch I sent last night is less necessary
than I'd thought.  The man page *does* include the text:  "If the first
character of N (the number of bytes or lines) is a `+', print beginning
with the Nth item from the start of each file".  There was a
formatting glitch in my terminal program that obscured part of
the paragraph; mea culpa.

I still think the proposed change is worth making, though.  In the table
listing the arguments, all it says is "output the last N lines"--a
statement that is not correct in all cases, but there's no indication
of this.

Here it is again, slightly improved.

Evan Hunt

==========================================
diff -u tail.c.00 tail.c
--- tail.c.00   2006-12-16 09:06:08.000000000 -0800
+++ tail.c      2006-12-16 09:11:55.000000000 -0800
@@ -231,7 +231,9 @@
                            inaccessible when tail starts or if it becomes\n\
                            inaccessible later; useful when following by 
name,\n\
                            i.e., with --follow=name\n\
-  -c, --bytes=N            output the last N bytes\n\
+  -c, --bytes=[+-]N[bkm]   if N is preceded by '-' or no sign, output the\n\
+                           last N bytes; if it is preceded by a '+', output\n\
+                           all bytes starting with the Nth.\n\
 "), stdout);
      fputs (_("\
   -f, --follow[={name|descriptor}]\n\
@@ -241,7 +243,9 @@
   -F                       same as --follow=name --retry\n\
 "), stdout);
      printf (_("\
-  -n, --lines=N            output the last N lines, instead of the last %d\n\
+  -n, --lines=[+-]N[bkm]   if N is preceded by a '-' or no sign, output the\n\
+                           last N lines (default %d); if it is preceded by\n\
+                           a '+', output all lines starting with the Nth.\n\
       --max-unchanged-stats=N\n\
                            with --follow=name, reopen a FILE which has not\n\
                            changed size after N (default %d) iterations\n\




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