uniq: missing option -W / --check-fields=N
Greetings all, uniq(1) used to have an option for checking only a certain number of fields. I have since noticed that some scripts I wrote some time ago have stopped working because the -W / --check-fields=N option has disappeared. Can it please be put back in? I am happy to write a patch to do so if no-one else wants to do it. Is there a reason why it disappeared? Matt ___ Bug-coreutils mailing list Bug-coreutils@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bug-coreutils
Re: uniq: missing option -W / --check-fields=N
Eric Blake wrote: uniq(1) used to have an option for checking only a certain number of fields. I have since noticed that some scripts I wrote some time ago have stopped working because the -W / --check-fields=N option has disappeared. Can it please be put back in? It's still there in the latest stable version, 5.96: $ uniq --version | head -n1 uniq (GNU coreutils) 5.96 $ uniq --help | grep check -w, --check-chars=N compare no more than N characters in lines not --check-chars=N, I'm talking about --check-fields=N. I am happy to write a patch to do so if no-one else wants to do it. Is there a reason why it disappeared? Probably because you switched systems or PATH, and are no longer using the GNU coreutils version of uniq. I upgraded recently from Debian Sarge to Ubuntu Dapper, and I noticed that the -W (note the caps!) flag had disappeared. Maybe it was a Debian distro patch. Paul Eggert has mentioned that upstream uniq has never had a -W flag. Would you be receptive to a patch? I'm happy to write one. Matt ___ Bug-coreutils mailing list Bug-coreutils@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bug-coreutils
Re: uniq: missing option -W / --check-fields=N
Paul Eggert wrote: Matt Keenan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: Paul Eggert has mentioned that upstream uniq has never had a -W flag. Would you be receptive to a patch? I'm not sure. Does any distribution other than Debian-derived distributions have it? More importantly, what's it used for and useful for? The main purpose is so that checking can be done against fields as opposed to just characters (think of fields that have an inconsistent number of characters). The use I have for it is to get the final count for the number of pages for a given CUPS job from the CUPS page_log file. Making a patch from the debian sources is not a difficult task and I can provide one if necessary. Matt ___ Bug-coreutils mailing list Bug-coreutils@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bug-coreutils
Re: uniq: missing option -W / --check-fields=N
Jim Meyering wrote: [snip snip] I agree, and think I wrote exactly the same thing: uniq needs the same -k key-selection options as sort -- probably in response to a request to integrate the Debian patch. I went to look for it a couple days ago, but got side-tracked. I am happy to write a patch. Just a quick note, I would have thought that the Debian patch was released under a GPL license, and hence I wouldn't need to request permission (as the permission was already granted by the license). I will check the license anyway before I check the code and do a clean room implementation from scratch if necessary.. Matt ___ Bug-coreutils mailing list Bug-coreutils@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bug-coreutils
