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2004-11-27(du invocation): Use if=/dev/null ratherPaul Eggert
than :|. Problem reported by Dan Jacobson. Use "seek=2GiB" rather than the wordier "seek=`echo '2^31'|bc`". Say "KiB" not the (inaccurate) "kilobytes". Similarly for "GiB" and "gigabytes".
2004-11-20(dd invocation): Add noctty flag to dd.Paul Eggert
2004-11-16(General output formatting): -x doesn't havePaul Eggert
an operand. (Formatting the file names): Warn that even with -N unprintable chars are still printed as '?' some times. (rm invocation): Reword rm -d to note that it's sometimes useful on non-directories. (logname invocation, users invocation, who invocation): The utmp and wtmp file names vary from system to system.
2004-11-16(dd invocation): Reword the new dd message.Paul Eggert
2004-11-15(dd invocation): dd now outputs total bytes,Paul Eggert
seconds, and bytes per second.
2004-10-29Document TZ better, and adjust to new getdate.texi.Paul Eggert
(Top): Update menu. (pr invocation, Formatting file timestamps, touch invocation, stat invocation, who invocation, date invocation, Options for date): Mention TZ.
2004-10-28(Standards conformance): Use "head -10" rather than "head -1" asPaul Eggert
example of obsolete usage, since the POSIX consensus is that "head -1" could be supported even if we don't yet have clear consensus on "head -10". See today's revision to the SUS FAQ <http://www.opengroup.org/austin/papers/single_unix_faq.html>.
2004-10-25(pathchk invocation): Options must precede operands.Paul Eggert
2004-10-18(pathchk invocation): Overall lengths arePaul Eggert
OS limits, not file system limits. Component length checks apply to all components, not merely to existing ones. Say that nonexistent names are not errors. For -p, omit all checks based on the underlying file system, not merely length checks. Explain what the portabile file name character set is.
2004-10-15(printf invocation): Mention ISO/IEC 10646 asPaul Eggert
well as Unicode. Various minor formatting cleanups.
2004-10-13(sort invocation): Move LC_ALL, LC_COLLATEPaul Eggert
index entries to proper paragraph.
2004-10-11Add missing .Paul Eggert
2004-10-11(Special built-in utilities): New node.Paul Eggert
(printf invocation): builtin -> built-in, for consistency with POSIX terminology. (test invocation, pwd invocation): Use specific rather than generic language to warn about built-in commands. (chroot invocation, env invocation, nice invocation, nohup invocation): Warn that command must not be a special built-in. (env invocation): Warn about environment variables with unusual spellings, or duplicates.
2004-09-26(ls invocation): Document "ls --hide".Paul Eggert
2004-09-24(chmod invocation): Warn about "chmod -w file".Paul Eggert
2004-09-23(tail invocation): Fix bugs in the description ofPaul Eggert
the obsolete syntax (e.g., it does not support -k or -m). Warn about usages like "tail -" and "tail -c 4" that are ambigous on older systems.
2004-09-21(mv invocation, rm invocation): Say "the responsePaul Eggert
is affirmative" rather than "the response begins with y or Y".
2004-09-19(dd invocation): Distinguish between optionsPaul Eggert
(e.g., --help) and operands (e.g., if=file). Move miscellaneous stuff after the operand descriptions, for clarity.
2004-09-09(test invocation): Document -r, -w, -x more carefully.Paul Eggert
2004-09-09(sort invocation): -u disables the last-resortPaul Eggert
comparison, too. Revamp its description.
2004-09-09(test invocation): Mention that -h and -L don't dereference symlinks.Paul Eggert
2004-09-09(test invocation): Use better synopses.Paul Eggert
2004-09-09(Common options): Some programs don't reorderPaul Eggert
options. (tr invocation, echo invocation, printf invocation, test invocation, expr invocation, basename invocation, chroot invocation, nice invocation, nohup invocation, seq invocation): This program doesn't reorder options. (tr invocation): Mention --help, --version, --. (echo invocation): Mention that -- isn't special. (test invocation): Mention that the expression is optional, and that test ! EXPR is like ! test EXPR. (expr invocation): Mention --help, --version.
2004-09-08(sort invocation): Add remarks about sort -u versus sort | uniq.Paul Eggert
Prompted by a question from Andrew Noymer.
2004-09-06(od invocation): Several changes for POSIXPaul Eggert
and FreeBSD compatibility. Add support for XSI syntax (POSIX 1003.1-2004). Rename -s[N] to -S N. Remove documentation for -h. -i is now -t dI (not d2) and -l is now -t dL (not d4).
2004-09-06(String tests): Improve quality of warning aboutPaul Eggert
quoting strings for the shell.
2004-09-03(dd invocation): Specify which conversion optionsPaul Eggert
are mutually exclusive. Give a bit more detail about ascii, ebcdic, and ibm conversions.
2004-08-24Standardize on "tab stop" (the POSIX usage)Paul Eggert
rather than "tabstop". (unexpand invocation): Use "blank" rather than "space" when POSIX requires "blank". Define "blank". Initial blanks are converted even if there's just one. For -a, convert two or more blanks only if they occur just before a tab stop.
2004-08-19(chown invocation): Fix synopsis:Paul Eggert
group must always be preceded by separator. "chown : file" and "chown '' file" don't change the owner or group. Update the explanation of what happens to the set-user-ID or set-group-ID bits, e.g., they sometimes are not cleared if they denote mandatory locking. Change "find"-oriented examples to use chown -h.
2004-08-18(printf invocation): Clarify how "printf" isPaul Eggert
supposed to work with extra arguments, missing arguments, etc.
2004-08-10(Common options): Clarify that "-" meansPaul Eggert
stdin/stdout only when it is an operand, not when it is an option-argument. (shred invocation): "shred -- -" is equivalent to "shred -", not to "shred ./-". (tee invocation): "tee -" means to copy (again) to stdout.
2004-07-26(nice invocation): Document the "nice value", andPaul Eggert
how it affects the scheduling priority. (The old documentation implied that the nice value equaled the scheduling priority, which isn't accurate.) Document that the range of nice values might exceed -20..19. Specify what happens when you give a nice value that is out of range, or when you don't have permissions to lower the nice value. Bash doesn't have a builtin 'nice', so don't say "most shells" have one.
2004-07-23(tail invocation): "size has remained the same"Paul Eggert
-> "file has not changed", which is more accurate for fifos.
2004-07-22(tail invocation): Do not ignore -f forPaul Eggert
all pipes, just for when standard input is a pipe and no file operand is specified.
2004-07-06(readlink invocation): Document newJim Meyering
"readlink -f" behaviour and new canonicalize options, -e and -m.
2004-07-02(Common options, Target directory, cp invocation,Jim Meyering
install invocation, mv invocation, ln invocation): Add -t as a short option for --target-directory, and -T as a short option for --no-target-directory. Clean up relevant synopses a bit, so that the language is similar for all.
2004-07-02Put the right amount of space at sentence ends.Jim Meyering
Make sure "i.e." and "e.g." are followed by commas (the GNU style). Put blank lines before and after every @example, prefer the previous line to end in ":" (when not a sentence end, for consistency), and prepend @noindent to the following line when appropriate. In examples, use "--" arguments when needed to prevent undesired interpretation of operands as options. Use "file name" rather than "filename", as per the GNU coding standards. Remove unwanted spaces before @footnote. Use "---" when appropriate, instead of " -- ". Use "name" (or something like that) rather than "path" or "pathname", since the GNU coding standards don't allow "path". Use @acronym, @command, @minus{}, @samp in a few places, where appropriate. (Target directory): Clarify description of example. (fmt invocation): Give issue number for reference, and reword for clarity. (sort invocation): Note that xargs without -0 also mishandles file names containing some special characters other than newline. (Translating): Mention that \012 is not universally portable. Use '\0' rather than '\000'. (Squeezing): bourne -> Bourne. Fix unportable usage of '\n' by replacing it with '[\n*]'. (More details about version sort): Remove unnecessary indent in examples. (dd invocation): Use 'kill -s USR1', not 'kill -USR1', as POSIX indicates that the former is more portable (the latter is an XSI extension). (shred invocation): Use @uref rather than @url, and use a more-typical style for the date. (kill invocation): Clarify usage; for example, "kill -s TERM -1" isn't allowed. (seq invocation): Reword to avoid implying that printf necessarily fails for numbers outside the 32-bit range. Prefer separating options from their operands. (Opening the software toolbox): Give an online reference to Robbins's article, and give a date. Don't imply that the current documentation is unchanged from his article. (Putting the tools together): Rework examples so that they don't assume the C locale; nowadays many users now operate outside the C locale by default. While we're at it, don't assume ASCII either. Indent example to match actual output from GNU uniq. Remove some unnecessary and confusing brackets from 'tr' operands. "Software Tools in Pascal" is back in print, according to Amazon anyway. Add references to Kernighan's online copies of examples.
2004-06-30Standardize on "file system" ratherJim Meyering
than "filesystem", as POSIX prefers it with a space.
2004-06-30(Common options, Target directory, cpJim Meyering
invocation, install invocation, mv invocation, ln invocation): Likewise. (link invocation): Explain how to rewrite link using ln now that we have --no-target-directory. (ln invocation): Explain that --no-target-directory subsumes --no-dereference. (unlink invocation): Modify wording to match new wording in link invocation.
2004-06-29(install invocation): Document --target-directory in synopsis, too.Jim Meyering
2004-06-17(yes invocation): "--" is now supported.Jim Meyering
(false invocation, true invocation): --help and --version now work unconditionally.
2004-06-15Remove special cases for POSIXLY_CORRECT when POSIX allows the GNU behavior.Jim Meyering
(pr invocation, unlink invocation): Document this.
2004-06-07Remove menu references to just-removed subsection.Jim Meyering
2004-06-06(tr invocation): Remove the section describingJim Meyering
how POSIXLY_CORRECT changes tr's behavior.
2004-06-02(cut invocation): Clarify what --output-delimiter=STRJim Meyering
does with byte/character ranges.
2004-06-02(tr invocation): Mention -C.Jim Meyering
2004-06-01Add some index references for POSIXLY_CORRECT.Jim Meyering
(echo invocation): Document today's changes.
2004-05-17chgrp and chown now dereference symlinks by default, per POSIX.Jim Meyering
(chgrp invocation, chown invocation): Document it.
2004-05-14(sort invocation): Document that "sort -m -o F"Jim Meyering
might write F before reading all the input.
2004-05-09(stat invocation): Change IO to I/O.Jim Meyering