bug#8231: Bug in the linux command: tail

[Eric Blake]

On 03/11/2011 01:29 PM, Roger N. Clark wrote:
>> Basically, POSIX 2001 and newer does _not_ require -3 to be parsed as a
>> valid option (rather, the POSIX spelling is -n -3), so GNU coreutils is
>> supporting -3 as an extension.
>>
>> Then I looked at the actual POSIX 2008 wording:
>> http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/tail.html
>>
>>     tail [-f] [-c number|-n number] [file]

> 
> Thank you for the quick reply.  I'm fine with needing to say -n -3.

Yes, POSIX is clear that '-n -3' and '-n 3' have the same meaning as the
traditional '-3'.

> Perhaps the man page needs to be clearer, so should be changed from the
> current:
> 
>        -n, --lines=N
>               output the last N lines, instead of the last 10

That's not current.  Coreutils 8.10 is the latest release, and the man
page from that version (as well as 'tail --help', from which the man
page is generated) states:

      -n, --lines=K
              output the last K lines, instead of the last 10; or use -n
+K to
              output lines starting with the Kth

-- 
Eric Blake   address@hidden    +1-801-349-2682
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org

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