Re: debian coreutils patches

[Jim Meyering]

Michael Stone wrote:
> I'm attaching the current patches from the debian coreutils package to
> make sure they don't get missed.

Thanks!

> 61_whoips: this one will be problematic to include directly as I don't
> have the autoconf-fu to make the network functions portable to
> non-linux
> platforms, and the core function was pulled from another program. It
> basically makes who output IP addresses rather than hostnames, which
> is quite useful as IPs are more reliable than PTRs. If not this patch,
> it would be good to add something
> similar. http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=363126

This does sound useful.
Maybe something like --ip-address rather than --ips for the new name?
It needs texinfo documentation, too.
Maybe someone will provide the missing pieces...

> 63_dd-appenderrors: makes dd spit out a helpful message when someone
> uses oflag=append without conv=notrunc and clobbers their output
> file. http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=373736

This looks useful too, and safe, since POSIX does not specify oflag=append.
Do you feel like adding a NEWS entry and a test or two,
and sending "git format-patch" output?
Also, if you didn't write the patch, please attribute the author.
And mention the reporter's name and bug URL in the commit log.

At the very least, we need to know the "Real Name <address@hidden>"
of the author.

Please let us know your plans.
I'd like to make a beta release as soon as gnulib's
recent changes can propagate to coreutils.

> 72_id_checkngroups: print a message if user is in more groups than the
> system can support
> http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=175994

Same as above.

--- coreutils-6.10/src/id.c
...
+    else if (sysconf(_SC_NGROUPS_MAX) > 0 && n_groups > 
sysconf(_SC_NGROUPS_MAX))
+      {
+        fprintf (stderr, _("Warning: user %s is in more groups than system's 
configured maximum.\n"), (username != NULL)?username:"");
+      }


Slightly better to call sysconf (_SC_NGROUPS_MAX) only once:

   else if (0 < (ng_max = sysconf (_SC_NGROUPS_MAX)) && ng_max < n_groups)

Also, please use error (0, 0, ... rather than fprintf,
and split the long line.

Maybe use error (EXIT_FAILURE, 0,
to signal the failure.

The rest are all included already, ...

except this one:

  > 81_tail-f-: proposed change for handling "tail -f -" post 7.6
  > http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=545422

which I'd still like to defer.