Re: ls - French translation of N_("%b %e %Y")

[Bruno Haible]

Eric Blake wrote:
> "The results are unspecified ... or if a minimum field width is
> specified for any conversion specifier other than C , F , G , or Y ."
>
> So I guess the gcc warning is nice if you are being portable to non-GNU
> strftime

And also with GNU strftime, the width feature is useless here: %5b will ensure
that the result occupies 5 _bytes_, not 5 screen columns. POSIX says:
  "If the converted value ... has fewer bytes than the minimum field width
   ...  the output shall be padded ..."

Bytes and columns are a different thing. For example, in a German UTF-8
locale, "Mär" is 4 bytes but only 3 screen column. Likewise for "fév" in
a French UTF-8 locale.

Test program:
=================================================
#include <stdio.h>
#include <locale.h>
#include <time.h>
int main()
{
  setlocale (LC_ALL, "");
  char buf[100];
  time_t now = time (NULL);
  strftime (buf, 100, "%5b", localtime (&now));
  printf ("|%s|\n", buf);
  return 0;
}
=================================================

$ LC_ALL=fr_FR.UTF-8 ./a.out 
| mars|
$ LC_ALL=de_DE.UTF-8 ./a.out 
| Mär|

You can see that for column alignment purposes, it is useless.

Bruno