Alexander Best wrote: > hmmm...but dd e.g. uses lowercase instead of upercase letters to indicate > kilobyte, megabyte and so on. isn't there some unix/posix/whatever standard > telling app developers what to use?
Sure. The standard for scale-prefixes is defined by the Systeme Internationale as part of the definition of SI units: http://www.npl.co.uk/reference/measurement-units/si-prefixes/ Note that these are strictly powers-of-10^3 multipliers, and explicitly not the computing style powers-of-2^10 commonly used for file sizes or hard drive capacities, which should instead use the somewhat clunky Ki, Mi, Gi etc. forms: http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/binary.html These binary prefixes are mandated by the IEC and approved by the IEEE amongst others. Not that many people use the binary prefixes appropriately, relying on context to disambiguate 1 MB = 1024 KB = 1,048,576 Bytes etc. Except that (confusingly) as a measure of network bandwidth 10 Mb/s always was 10,000,000 b/s and never 10,485,760 b/s; a fact that has caught me out more than a few times. Making find(1) / dd(1) / etc. operate pedantically correctly with these scale-factor symbols would cause a certain degree of pain for little practical gain. Unless there was a broad consensus amongst all Unixoid OS providers, I can't see that change ever happening. Cheers, Matthew -- Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. Flat 3 7 Priory Courtyard PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey Ramsgate Kent, CT11 9PW, UK
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