View Issue Details
| ID | Project | Category | View Status | Date Submitted | Last Update |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0000510 | 1003.1(2008)/Issue 7 | Shell and Utilities | public | 2011-11-16 18:15 | 2019-06-10 08:55 |
| Reporter | eblake | Assigned To | ajosey | ||
| Priority | normal | Severity | Objection | Type | Omission |
| Status | Closed | Resolution | Accepted | ||
| Name | Eric Blake | ||||
| Organization | Red Hat | ||||
| User Reference | ebb.sort | ||||
| Section | sort | ||||
| Page Number | 3184 | ||||
| Line Number | 106060 | ||||
| Interp Status | --- | ||||
| Final Accepted Text | |||||
| Summary | 0000510: sort -k should allow more than one modifier in [type] | ||||
| Description | A strict reading of sort -k 'keydef' says that each optional 'type' is a single modifier. But there are cases where it is desirable to have more than one modifier in a -k listing. Consider a file containing: 1b1 b 2a2 b 3a3 a In the POSIX locale, this file is correctly sorted under the specification of a primary key being the second non-blank character of field 1 in reverse order, and a secondary key of the second field including blanks in normal order. But the only way to express this as a sort command line is to use multiple types on either the start or the end field of key 1; use of a global -b or -r would break the sorting desired of the secondary key. That is, there is no alternative to this command line: printf ' 1b1 b\n2a2 b\n3a3 a\n' | LC_ALL=C sort -k1.2b,1.2rb -k2,2 which would result in the same output, but without using a [type] of rb in at least one of the two positions of the first -k option. My testing shows that GNU, Solaris, BSD, AIX, HP-UX, and IRIX sort all support the above use of multiple letters for type, so this proposal should not be very controversial. | ||||
| Desired Action | At line 106060 [XCU sort OPTIONS], change "type is a modifier from the list" to "type is one or more modifiers from the list". | ||||
| Tags | tc2-2008 | ||||
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An alternative fix for this problem would be to change P3184, L106058 from: field_start[type][,field_end[type]] to: field_start[type...][,field_end[type...]] |
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If we go with the [type...] approach suggested by Don, we would also need to make the same change on P3185 line 106120. |
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The suggestion in the notes was discussed, but rejected because the utility syntax guidelines don't clearly allow ... to be used in option-arguements; only in operands. |
| Date Modified | Username | Field | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011-11-16 18:15 | eblake | New Issue | |
| 2011-11-16 18:15 | eblake | Status | New => Under Review |
| 2011-11-16 18:15 | eblake | Assigned To | => ajosey |
| 2011-11-16 18:15 | eblake | Name | => Eric Blake |
| 2011-11-16 18:15 | eblake | Organization | => Red Hat |
| 2011-11-16 18:15 | eblake | User Reference | => ebb.sort |
| 2011-11-16 18:15 | eblake | Section | => sort |
| 2011-11-16 18:15 | eblake | Page Number | => 3184 |
| 2011-11-16 18:15 | eblake | Line Number | => 106060 |
| 2011-11-16 18:15 | eblake | Interp Status | => --- |
| 2012-01-13 22:58 | Don Cragun | Note Added: 0001093 | |
| 2012-01-14 01:49 | nick | Note Added: 0001094 | |
| 2012-04-13 07:44 | Don Cragun | Note Edited: 0001093 | |
| 2012-05-24 16:14 | Don Cragun | Note Added: 0001242 | |
| 2012-05-24 16:14 | Don Cragun | Status | Under Review => Resolved |
| 2012-05-24 16:14 | Don Cragun | Resolution | Open => Accepted |
| 2012-05-24 16:14 | Don Cragun | Tag Attached: tc2-2008 | |
| 2019-06-10 08:55 | agadmin | Status | Resolved => Closed |
