Re: coreutils version number policy

[Heiner Steven]

Bob Proulx wrote:
> Heiner Steven wrote:

[...]
> > I have two different systems (Debina and SuSE), both with
> > coreutils version 5.2.1 installed. The "uniq" commands on both
> > system print the same version number (5.2.1), but support different
> > command line options. In particular the first system's "uniq" supports
> > the "-W" option, the second system's "uniq" does not.

[...]
> > I thought that the "coreutils" version number described a set of
> > commands together with their features and bugs, new features
> > causing a new version number.
>
> And for the upstream project that is true.  Taken in isolation of any
> changes to the upstream the version number is always modified when new
> versions are released and so would uniquely describe a full set of
> features.  But distros do often make modifications to upstream sources
> for their own purposes.

So the maintainers of a distribution should provide ways
for users to find out, if they changed a base coreutils utility.
Perhaps "$utility --version" could list the patches applied.
But I understand that this is specific to a distribution.

[...tips on how to check for valid utility options...]

Bob, thanks for the fast response.

Heiner