[debbugs-tracker] bug#19240: closed (cut 8.22 adds newline)

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Your message dated Mon, 01 Dec 2014 10:05:37 -0700
with message-id <address@hidden>
and subject line Re: bug#19240: cut 8.22 adds newline
has caused the debbugs.gnu.org bug report #19240,
regarding cut 8.22 adds newline
to be marked as done.

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19240: http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=19240
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> --- Begin Message ---
>
>
>
> Subject: 
>
> cut 8.22 adds newline
>
>
>
>
> Date: 
>
> Mon, 1 Dec 2014 13:39:38 +0000
>
>
>
>
> Hi,
>
> I don't know if this is a bug, but I wonder if there is a consensus on correct 
> behavior.
> The solaris version of cut does not add a newline if there was no newline on 
> the input:
>
> Consider this printf command:
>
> $ printf "1\n12\n123\n1234\n12345\n123456"
> 1
> 12
> 123
> 1234
> 12345
> 123456$
>
> Note that the shell prompt appears after the 6 on the last line.
>
>
> # Solaris cut
> $ printf "1\n12\n123\n1234\n12345\n123456" | cut -c1-4
> 1
> 12
> 123
> 1234
> 1234
> 1234$
>
> Note that the shell prompt appears after the 4 on the last line.
>
> #gnu 8.22 cut
> /$ printf "1\n12\n123\n1234\n12345\n123456" | cut -c1-4
> 1
> 12
> 123
> 1234
> 1234
> 1234
> $
>
> Note that the shell prompt appears on its own line.
>
> I came upon this while porting scripts from Solaris 10 to Centos 7.
>
> Interested to hear you thoughts.
>
> Thanks and best regards,
> John
> ---
> John Kendall
> System Administrator
> CAI International
>
>
>
>
> --- End Message ---

--- Begin Message --- Subject: Re: bug#19240: cut 8.22 adds newline Date: Mon, 01 Dec 2014 10:05:37 -0700 User-agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:31.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/31.2.0

tag 19240 notabug
thanks

On 12/01/2014 06:39 AM, John Kendall wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I don't know if this is a bug, but I wonder if there is a consensus on 
> correct behavior.
> The solaris version of cut does not add a newline if there was no newline on 
> the input:

Such an input is not a text file (the POSIX definition of text file
requires that if the file is not empty, it ends in newline); and POSIX
leaves the behavior of 'cut' unspecified if it is not operating on a
text file.

http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/basedefs/V1_chap03.html#tag_03_397

http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/cut.html

Therefore, it is unspecified whether cut will add or skip a trailing
newline.

> 
> I came upon this while porting scripts from Solaris 10 to Centos 7.

GNU chose to make cut behave similarly to sort, which IS required to add
a trailing newline even when the input lacks one (that is, POSIX goes
the extra mile and defines sort behavior on non-text files that are
non-text only because they lack a newline).  Solaris chose differently.
 But the problem is that you are relying on unspecified behavior; fix
your input files to have a trailing newline, then you won't have to
worry about it.

At any rate, I see no reason to change GNU behavior, so I'm closing this
as not a bug.  Feel free to add further comments, though, including if
you have a stronger argument for why we should reopen the bug and change
behavior.

-- 
Eric Blake   eblake redhat com    +1-919-301-3266
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org

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