Re: [PATCH] doc: Improve NUM documentation for head and tail

[Pádraig Brady]

On 19/07/2023 19:21, Dragan Simic wrote:
> Clarify that the NUM values for head and tail are indices, and briefly
> describe the specifics of +NUM for tail.
>
> Signed-off-by: Dragan Simic <dsimic@manjaro.org>
> ---
>   src/head.c | 3 ++-
>   src/tail.c | 4 +++-
>   2 files changed, 5 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/src/head.c b/src/head.c
> index 7bba1420c..e82f9e195 100644
> --- a/src/head.c
> +++ b/src/head.c
> @@ -137,7 +137,8 @@ With more than one FILE, precede each with a header giving 
> the file name.\n\
>         fputs (VERSION_OPTION_DESCRIPTION, stdout);
>         fputs (_("\
>   \n\
> -NUM may have a multiplier suffix:\n\
> +NUM values are indices, thus counting lines and bytes in a file starts\n\
> +from one.  NUM may also have a multiplier suffix:\n\
>   b 512, kB 1000, K 1024, MB 1000*1000, M 1024*1024,\n\
>   GB 1000*1000*1000, G 1024*1024*1024, and so on for T, P, E, Z, Y, R, Q.\n\
>   Binary prefixes can be used, too: KiB=K, MiB=M, and so on.\n\


Well only tail -n+NUM is an index,
whereas the other combinations would be most generally considered
as a count (to skip or include).
Also this doesn't specify if the index is 0 or 1 based.

I'll apply the attached instead, which I think clarifies things.

thanks,
Pádraig

tail-n+-clarification.patch
Description: Text Data