Re: Does -s apply to -m in sort?

[Eric Blake]

On 5/11/20 4:18 PM, Peng Yu wrote:
> I used real files (already sorted) to test whether having -s or not
> affect -m. But I have not made minimal example input files so that is
> why I am not sure about my conclusion.
>
> But the command to try is basically `sort -m -k sort_fields files...`
> or `sort -s -m -k sort_fields files..`.

That's closer - it shows a pseudo-command line you attempted.  But it 
still does not lend itself to reproducibility, because we don't know 
what 'sort_fields' you used, nor what 'files..' contain.

You also didn't state whether you tried the --debug option, to see if 
the presence or absence of -s showed enough debugging crumbs to prove 
that you at least tried to analyze the problem yourself.  Nor did you 
mention whether you read the source code (it _is_ open source, after 
all, so instead of asking someone else to do your homework, _you_ can 
find the answer).

> I assume to authors who made -m and -s. My question should be clear?

Unfortunately, your assumption is wrong.  A clear question is one that 
includes actual examples, and not one that forces someone to reproduce 
the work that you could have already provided them.  Put it this way: 
suppose it took you 5 minutes to come up with a test case, and that 
there are 100 list readers interested in your problem, each of whom then 
take another 5 minutes to reproduce the setup from your vague 
description.  Then you have cost 505 minutes of collective time; and 
your original work plus the work of each reader results in a very low 
signal-to-noise ratio (5/505 is less than 1% new discoveries, and more 
than 99% rehash).  But if it takes you an additional 5 minutes to polish 
your query into an email that can then be copy-pasted into a terminal so 
that each reader can reproduce the problem in 5 seconds, then your 
initial 10 minutes of effort (which is indeed twice the work on your 
part) plus 500 seconds of list readers' time results in a much better 
ratio of useful new work (5/18.3 is > 27%).  Although it costs you more, 
your efforts to make everyone else's life easier is magnified by the 
number of readers benefitted by your extra efforts.  (And that's why I'm 
spending so long in writing my reply - to try to teach you that your 
historical style of questioning leaves a lot to be desired, as well as a 
possibly-futile attempt on my part to get you to recognize that the more 
effort YOU put into a good bug report, the less likely you are to be 
habitually ignored as someone who merely wastes time).

--
Eric Blake, Principal Software Engineer
Red Hat, Inc.           +1-919-301-3226
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