Re: "ls" spacing between columns

[Jim Meyering]

"Alfred M. Szmidt" <address@hidden> wrote:
...
> (http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/007904975/utilities/ls.html):
>
> ,----[ POSIX 1003.1, ls ]
> | If the -l option is specified without -L, the following information
> | shall be written:
> |
> | "%s %u %s %s %u %s %s\n", <file mode>, <number of links>,
> |     <owner name>, <group name>, <number of bytes in the file>,
> |     <date and time>, <pathname>
> `----
>
> And to be a real nitpicker, there should be only one space between the
> <file mode> and <number of links> filed from GNU ls if one should
> follow POSIX stricly...

Maybe you didn't notice that the mode string actually
consists of 11 characters, the last of which is often a space?
Note the `<optional alternate access method flag> below.
It's a `+' for e.g., a file with an ACL.

 XSI             The file mode written under the -l,-g, -n, and -ooptions shall 
consist of the following format:
                 "%c%s%s%s%c", <entry type>, <owner permissions>,
                      <group permissions>, <other permissions>,
                     <optional alternate access method flag>

> Mmm... Maybe there is even a smallish bug in POSIX, from the example
> section (ls -laRF):
>
> -rwxr--r--   1 hlj      prog         572 Jul  4 12:07 foo*
>
> That doesn't corespond with the above rule for -l.  Should this be
> reported to the OpenGroup?

What part doesn't correspond?