Re: [PATCH] ls: add --sort=width (-W) option to sort by filename width

[Pádraig Brady]

On 09/04/2021 23:51, Pádraig Brady wrote:
> On 09/04/2021 13:02, Carl Edquist wrote:
> > Dear Coreutils Maintainers,
> >
> > I'd like to introduce my favorite 'ls' option, '-W', which I have been
> > enjoying using regularly over the last few years.
> >
> > The concept is just to sort filenames by their printed widths.
> >
> >
> > (If this sounds odd, I invite you hear it out, try and see for yourself!)
> >
> >
> > I am including a patch with my implementation and accompanying tests - as
> > well as some sample output.  And I'll happily field any requests for
> > improvements.
>
> I quite like this. It seems useful.
> Also doing outside of ls is quite awkward,
> especially considering multi column output.
>
> I would avoid the -W short option, as that would clash with ls from FreeBSD for 
> example.
> It's probably best to not provide a short option for this at all.

Playing around with this a bit more,
I really like how much more concise it makes output in general.

I've attached two patches which I'll apply tomorrow at some stage.

The first adjusts your patch to:
  Remove -W short option.
  Fix crash on systems with statx().
  s/filename/file name/.
  Expand in texinfo that --sort=width is most useful with -C (the default)

The second is a performance improvement,
as we're now calling quote_name_width a lot more.

thanks!
Pádraig

0002-ls-cache-name-width-determination.patch
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0001-ls-add-sort-width-option-to-sort-by-file-name-width.patch
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