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Re: Improve the man pages of --date=STRING for 'date' and 'touch'.
From: |
A. Costa |
Subject: |
Re: Improve the man pages of --date=STRING for 'date' and 'touch'. |
Date: |
Tue, 29 Jan 2008 20:34:39 -0500 |
On Mon, 28 Jan 2008 22:39:34 -0700
address@hidden (Bob Proulx) wrote:
> In an attempt to improve the 'date' and 'touch' man pages here is a
> proposal for a concise description of --date=STRING.
A successful attempt that's quite helpful. For the record for us
'pinfo' fans:
pinfo coreutils --node="date invocation"
On the 'man touch' patch, a few minor notes; optional; maybe too
"expensive" to pursue at present (spelling=easy;grammar=seldom so):
> touch \- change file timestamps
> [DESCRIPTION]
> .\" Add any additional description here
> +[DATE STRING]
> +The --date=STRING is a mostly free format human readable date string
> +such as "Sun, 29 Feb 2004 16:21:42 -0800" or "2004-02-29 16:21:42" or
> +even "next Thursday". If empty the string indicates the beginning of
> +the day. The string may contain calendar date items, time of day
> +items, time zone items, day of week items, relative items, and pure
> +numbers. The date string format is more complex than is easily
> +documented here but is fully described in the info documentation.
1) Sentence #3 ("The string may contain...") might go before #2, ("If
empty...").
2) Suggest 's/If empty the/An empty/'. Less to think of.
3) Are five instances of the plural noun "items" necessary? The
plural doesn't make logical sense for one-shot items, e.g. "may
contain ... day of week itemS?", but the 'touch' date string
contains at most one day.
HTH...