RE: [coreutils] Enhancement idea: Could "-M" be made the new short option for "--si" in ls,du, and df

[Tom Trauth]

Padraig,

Is it absolutely essential?  Probably not, especially in shell scripts.  But
when typing at the command line, I think it's a great convenience.  I'd much
rather type "ls -lM" or "du -sM" than "ls -l --si" or "du -s --si", though
the latter aren't particularly long either.  And I think the transition from
"du -H" (which is still equivalent to "du --si" in the latest version of
coreutils) to "du -M" would be a bit easier than the transition from "du -H"
to "du --si" since it doesn't entail more keystrokes, just a different
letter.  And other two-letter long options have short-option equivalents,
such as "--xz"/"-J" in tar. 

Regards,

Tom

-----Original Message-----
From: Pádraig Brady [mailto:address@hidden] 
Sent: Tuesday, September 07, 2010 4:50 AM
To: Tom Trauth
Cc: address@hidden
Subject: Re: [coreutils] Enhancement idea: Could "-M" be made the new short
option for "--si" in ls,du, and df

On 06/09/10 20:54, Tom Trauth wrote:
> Since “-H” can no longer be used as the short option for “--si“ (except
> in df) due to the POSIX requirement that it be the short option for
> “--dereference-command-line”, could “-M” be used as its replacement? 
> Neither ls, du, nor df currently have an “-M” option (though ls and du
> have “-m”), so it is available in all three commands.  Additionally, SI
> is colloquially called the Metric system, so “-M” has some mnemonic
> value to it.  Any thoughts?

Not a bad idea and -M is probably the right choice if we needed a short
option.
But do we need a short equiv of --si ? I'm 50:50

cheers,
Pádraig.