Re: man pages must still work minimally

[Jim Meyering]

"Alfred M. Szmidt" <address@hidden> wrote:
>    Thanks for reporting those.
>    I've done this:
>
>          * src/ls.c (usage): Clarify description of --author.
>
> I don't know how you clarified it, but if you did what I think you
> did, i.e. added something like "print it only in when doing a long
> listing".  Then it would be a good idea to do the same thing to other
> options that "depend" on -l.  A quick look produces the following list
> of options (not sorted in any particular way):
>
>   -s, --size                 print size of each file, in blocks
>       --time=WORD            show time as WORD instead of modification time:
>       --time-style=STYLE     show times using style STYLE:
>   -i, --inode                print index number of each file
>       --si                   likewise, but use powers of 1000 not 1024
>   -h, --human-readable  print sizes in human readable format (e.g., 1K 234M 
> 2G)
>   -G, --no-group             inhibit display of group information

Good point.
Would you like to do that?
The latest should be available from savannah.
Here's the change I made:

Index: src/ls.c
===================================================================
RCS file: /fetish/cu/src/ls.c,v
retrieving revision 1.366
retrieving revision 1.367
diff -u -p -u -r1.366 -r1.367
--- src/ls.c    5 Oct 2004 17:38:15 -0000       1.366
+++ src/ls.c    19 Nov 2004 19:29:55 -0000      1.367
@@ -4022,7 +4022,7 @@ Mandatory arguments to long options are 
       fputs (_("\
   -a, --all                  do not ignore entries starting with .\n\
   -A, --almost-all           do not list implied . and ..\n\
-      --author               print the author of each file\n\
+      --author               with -l, print the author of each file\n\
   -b, --escape               print octal escapes for nongraphic characters\n\
 "), stdout);
       fputs (_("\
@@ -4057,7 +4057,7 @@ Mandatory arguments to long options are 
                              follow symbolic links listed on the command 
line\n\
       --dereference-command-line-symlink-to-dir\n\
                              follow each command line symbolic link\n\
-                               that points to a directory\n\
+                             that points to a directory\n\
       --hide=PATTERN         do not list implied entries matching shell 
PATTERN\n\
                                (overridden by -a or -A)\n\
 "), stdout);
@@ -4098,15 +4098,15 @@ Mandatory arguments to long options are 
       fputs (_("\
   -S                         sort by file size\n\
       --sort=WORD            extension -X, none -U, size -S, time -t,\n\
-                               version -v\n\
-                             status -c, time -t, atime -u, access -u, use -u\n\
+                             version -v, status -c, time -t, atime -u,\n\
+                             access -u, use -u\n\
       --time=WORD            show time as WORD instead of modification time:\n\
-                               atime, access, use, ctime or status; use\n\
-                               specified time as sort key if --sort=time\n\
+                             atime, access, use, ctime or status; use\n\
+                             specified time as sort key if --sort=time\n\
 "), stdout);
       fputs (_("\
       --time-style=STYLE     show times using style STYLE:\n\
-                               full-iso, long-iso, iso, locale, +FORMAT\n\
+                             full-iso, long-iso, iso, locale, +FORMAT.\n\
                              FORMAT is interpreted like `date'; if FORMAT is\n\
                              FORMAT1<newline>FORMAT2, FORMAT1 applies to\n\
                              non-recent files and FORMAT2 to recent files;\n\