bug#10013: man ls

[Eric Blake]

[re-adding the list, so that others may review]

On 11/10/2011 01:43 PM, Ian Bruntlett wrote:
> Hi Eric,
>
> > On 11/10/2011 11:22 AM, Ian Bruntlett wrote:
> > > Do you think it would be a worthwhile thing to let people know directly that ls is short 
> > > for "list sorted"?
> >
> > I'm not sure whether modifying the .x templates to list historical
> > trivia is worth the effort for the man pages, but it would certainly be
> > worth mentioning this mnemonic in the info pages.  Would you care to
> > submit a patch?
>
> Not sure how to submit a patch but here goes...

Thanks for your attempt - this is a great example of diving in and 
proposing an alternative wording.

> Original text from info ls
>
> The `ls' program lists information about files (of any type, including
> directories).  Options and file arguments can be intermixed
> arbitrarily, as usual.
>
> Here is a possible improvement...
>
> This program, called ls, an abbreviation of "list sorted",  lists information 
> about files (of any type, including
>
> directories).  Options and file arguments can be intermixed
>
> arbitrarily, as usual.

Reads a bit long.  Maybe:

The 'ls' program stands for "list sorted".  It lists information about 
files (of any type, including directories), typically in a sorted order. 
 Options and file arguments...

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