Re: tail weirdness

[Igor Rivin]

Thanks for the explanation, some minor comments:

On Feb 6, 2007, at 9:16 AM, Eric Blake wrote:
<...>
> > address@hidden tmp]$ tail --version
> > tail (GNU coreutils) 5.97
>
> Consider upgrading - the lateset stable version is 6.7.  It will not
> change the behavior of tail in your case, but has other improvements.
Well, yum gives me what I have as the latest version, 6.7 does not  
appear visible in my repository...

> The short answer is that POSIX is the driving factor here, and that  
> Fedora
> core 6 has chosen POSIX 1003.1-2001 as their default.  Depending on  
> which
> version of POSIX you are compliant with, tail is specified to treat +3
> differently.  This is documented in the NEWS for 5.90:
Sadly, I have not kept up with the news, but the facts that (a) the  
change is incompatible and (b) the new  (POSIX) syntax is quite ugly  
give one a considerable amount of pause. Traditionally, gnu utilities  
appear to have not been too constrained by posix ((g)awk is a notable  
example, where you can get POSIX behavior by --posix, but you are not  
obliged to).

Anyway, thanks again for the comments.

   Igor