Re: question about SI/IEC in df

[Kaz Kylheku (Coreutils)]

On 2019-11-28 04:39, Krzysztof Labus wrote:
> In the manual I see:
> The SIZE argument is an integer and optional unit (example: 10K is
> 10*1024).  Units are K,M,G,T,P,E,Z,Y (powers of 1024) or KB,MB,...
> (powers of 1000).
>
> 1. Why df not using Ki, Mi, Gi etc. in powers od 1024 ??

- Wastes space.
- Flouts tradition.
- Scripts in the wild depend on the details of utility output; don't 
mess with it.
- It's ultimately "bike shedding".

But, let me remark, using KB, MB,  for powers of 1000 is neither metric, 
nor grounded in tradition.  If it's all caps like KB and MB, it's 
clearly 1024-based just like without the B. There has to be a lower-case 
b, and proper casing of the scale: k M g t p.  M is capitalized because 
m stands for milli, but the b won't be capitalized, hence Mb.

References: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilobyte

"The internationally recommended unit symbol for the kilobyte is kB."

"In some areas of information technology, particularly in reference to 
digital
memory capacity, kilobyte instead denotes 1024 (210) bytes. This arises 
from the
powers-of-two sizing common to memory circuit design. In this context, 
the symbols
K and KB are often used."