Re: sort "b" option in pos2 has strange effect

[Pádraig Brady]

I've tweaked the patch a bit to simplify some code
and expect to push it soon.

Thanks to my friendly LUG I confirmed that solaris 9 and 10
behave as expected for these commands:

printf "a a b\nz a a\n" | sort -k2,3.0
printf "a  y\na z\n" | sort -k1,1b

cheers,
Pádraig.

>From 4a1f5d98265cf74297d9e523aa99fca80cc51e3c Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: =?utf-8?q?P=C3=A1draig=20Brady?= <address@hidden>
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2009 08:37:18 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] sort: Fix two bugs with determining the end of field

* src/sort.c: When no specific number of chars to skip
is specified for the end field, always skip the whole field.
Also never include leading spaces from next field.
* tests/misc/sort: Add 2 new tests for these cases.
* NEWS: Mention this bug fix.
* THANKS: Add bug reporter.
Reported by Davide Canova
---
 NEWS            |    6 ++++++
 THANKS          |    1 +
 src/sort.c      |   38 +++++++++++++-------------------------
 tests/misc/sort |    6 ++++++
 4 files changed, 26 insertions(+), 25 deletions(-)

diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 82ded9d..05d22cb 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -2,6 +2,12 @@ GNU coreutils NEWS                                    -*- 
outline -*-
 
 * Noteworthy changes in release ?.? (????-??-??) [?]
 
+** Bug fixes
+
+  sort now handles specified key ends correctly.
+  Previously -k1,1b would have caused leading space from field 2 to be
+  included in the sort while -k2,3.0 would have not included field 3.
+
 
 * Noteworthy changes in release 7.1 (2009-02-21) [stable]
 
diff --git a/THANKS b/THANKS
index 5c25321..4b35a37 100644
--- a/THANKS
+++ b/THANKS
@@ -137,6 +137,7 @@ David Godfrey                       address@hidden
 David Luyer                         address@hidden
 David Madore                        address@hidden
 David Malone                        address@hidden
+Davide Canova                       address@hidden
 Dawson Engler                       address@hidden
 Dean Gaudet                         address@hidden
 Deepak Goel                         address@hidden
diff --git a/src/sort.c b/src/sort.c
index f438563..27726a5 100644
--- a/src/sort.c
+++ b/src/sort.c
@@ -1366,7 +1366,6 @@ begfield (const struct line *line, const struct keyfield 
*key)
   char *ptr = line->text, *lim = ptr + line->length - 1;
   size_t sword = key->sword;
   size_t schar = key->schar;
-  size_t remaining_bytes;
 
   /* The leading field separator itself is included in a field when -t
      is absent.  */
@@ -1392,12 +1391,7 @@ begfield (const struct line *line, const struct keyfield 
*key)
     while (ptr < lim && blanks[to_uchar (*ptr)])
       ++ptr;
 
-  /* Advance PTR by SCHAR (if possible), but no further than LIM.  */
-  remaining_bytes = lim - ptr;
-  if (schar < remaining_bytes)
-    ptr += schar;
-  else
-    ptr = lim;
+  ptr = MIN (lim, ptr + schar);
 
   return ptr;
 }
@@ -1410,7 +1404,9 @@ limfield (const struct line *line, const struct keyfield 
*key)
 {
   char *ptr = line->text, *lim = ptr + line->length - 1;
   size_t eword = key->eword, echar = key->echar;
-  size_t remaining_bytes;
+
+  if (echar == 0)
+    eword++; /* Skip all of end field.  */
 
   /* Move PTR past EWORD fields or to one past the last byte on LINE,
      whichever comes first.  If there are more than EWORD fields, leave
@@ -1487,19 +1483,14 @@ limfield (const struct line *line, const struct 
keyfield *key)
     }
 #endif
 
-  /* If we're ignoring leading blanks when computing the End
-     of the field, don't start counting bytes until after skipping
-     past any leading blanks. */
-  if (key->skipeblanks)
-    while (ptr < lim && blanks[to_uchar (*ptr)])
-      ++ptr;
+  if (echar != 0) /* We need to skip over a portion of the end field.  */
+    {
+      if (key->skipeblanks) /* blanks not counted in echar.  */
+       while (ptr < lim && blanks[to_uchar (*ptr)])
+         ++ptr;
 
-  /* Advance PTR by ECHAR (if possible), but no further than LIM.  */
-  remaining_bytes = lim - ptr;
-  if (echar < remaining_bytes)
-    ptr += echar;
-  else
-    ptr = lim;
+      ptr = MIN (lim, ptr + echar);
+    }
 
   return ptr;
 }
@@ -3152,12 +3143,9 @@ main (int argc, char **argv)
                  badfieldspec (optarg, N_("field number is zero"));
                }
              if (*s == '.')
-               s = parse_field_count (s + 1, &key->echar,
-                                      N_("invalid number after `.'"));
-             else
                {
-                 /* `-k 2,3' is equivalent to `+1 -3'.  */
-                 key->eword++;
+                 s = parse_field_count (s + 1, &key->echar,
+                                        N_("invalid number after `.'"));
                }
              s = set_ordering (s, key, bl_end);
            }
diff --git a/tests/misc/sort b/tests/misc/sort
index 3e8eda6..3af2388 100755
--- a/tests/misc/sort
+++ b/tests/misc/sort
@@ -110,6 +110,8 @@ my @Tests =
 ["07b", '-k 2,3', {IN=>"a a b\nz a a\n"}, {OUT=>"z a a\na a b\n"}],
 ["07c", '-k 2,3', {IN=>"y k b\nz k a\n"}, {OUT=>"z k a\ny k b\n"}],
 ["07d", '+1 -3', {IN=>"y k b\nz k a\n"}, {OUT=>"z k a\ny k b\n"}],
+# ensure a character position of 0 includes whole field
+["07e", '-k 2,3.0', {IN=>"a a b\nz a a\n"}, {OUT=>"z a a\na a b\n"}],
 #
 # report an error for `.' without following char spec
 ["08a", '-k 2.,3', {EXIT=>2},
@@ -210,6 +212,10 @@ my @Tests =
 # key start and key end.
 ["18e", '-nb -k1.1,1.2', {IN=>" 901\n100\n"}, {OUT=>"100\n 901\n"}],
 
+# When ignoring leading blanks for end position, ensure blanks from
+# next field are not included in the sort. I.E. order should not change here.
+["18f", '-k1,1b', {IN=>"a  y\na z\n"}, {OUT=>"a  y\na z\n"}],
+
 # This looks odd, but works properly -- 2nd keyspec is never
 # used because all lines are different.
 ["19a", '+0 +1nr', {IN=>"b 2\nb 1\nb 3\n"}, {OUT=>"b 1\nb 2\nb 3\n"}],
-- 
1.5.3.6