Possible bug w/sort: As of coreutils-5.9x, sort loses command-line column offset (e.g. +1.0n)

[John P. Eisenmenger]

Recently my coreutils package upgraded from version 5.2.1 to version 
5.94.  With the new version, specifying columnar offsets on the command 
line no longer works.  For example, here is a tes with the old and new 
versions, sorting on the second column (skip 1 column).  (Using 
/dev/null since the file contents really don't matter.):

Old version:

   $ sort --version
   sort (coreutils) 5.2.1
   Written by Mike Haertel and Paul Eggert.

   Copyright (C) 2004 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
   This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There 
is NO
   warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR 
PURPOSE.
   $ sort +1.0 /dev/null
   $

New version:

   $ sort --version
   sort (GNU coreutils) 5.94
   Copyright (C) 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
   This is free software.  You may redistribute copies of it under the 
terms of
   the GNU General Public License <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
   There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

   Written by Mike Haertel and Paul Eggert.
   $ sort +1.0 /dev/null
   sort: open failed: +1.0: No such file or directory
   $

So is this a bug, or do I just need to learn the new way of specifying 
column offsets?  I'm suspecting the latter, but would appreciate some 
illumination.

Thanks,
-John

--
John Eisenmenger <address@hidden>