Re: Tail +N apparent error.

[Eric Blake]

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According to Jan-Pawel Wrozstinski on 10/12/2009 2:11 AM:
>>   -n, --lines=K            output the last K lines, instead of the last 10;
>>                            or use +K to output lines starting with the Kth
>>
> Incidentally, I can't say that the newer "help" on this topic is much
> clearer -- especially for those of accustomed to the older versions --
> than the one I currently have running. If I may, I'd like to recommend
> having it read:
> 
> or use "-n +K" to ...

Good point.  Jim, what about this patch for tail?  I checked head as well,
but it did not have similar wording in the first place.

> And ...  how do I go about making sure I have the latest "tail" (and the
> other core utilities) installed?  Update Manager doesn't seem to notice...

Report that to your distro.  Meanwhile, you can build from the upstream
sources by hand, rather than waiting for your distro to pre-package a
newer coreutils.

- --
Don't work too hard, make some time for fun as well!

Eric Blake             address@hidden
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>From f25273d7f1dd0f8aa6e839b2201e61222061efae Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Eric Blake <address@hidden>
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 2009 07:00:12 -0600
Subject: [PATCH] tail: tweak usage for more clarity

* src/tail.c (usage): Spell out -n +K.
* THANKS: Update.
Reported by Jan-Pawel Wrozstinski.
---
 THANKS     |    1 +
 src/tail.c |    6 +++---
 2 files changed, 4 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/THANKS b/THANKS
index 65ac1bb..29013f6 100644
--- a/THANKS
+++ b/THANKS
diff --git a/src/tail.c b/src/tail.c
index f3fe6a3..b6ad290 100644
--- a/src/tail.c
+++ b/src/tail.c
@@ -260,8 +260,8 @@ With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.\n\
 Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.\n\
 "), stdout);
      fputs (_("\
-  -c, --bytes=K            output the last K bytes; alternatively, use +K to\n\
-                           output bytes starting with the Kth of each file\n\
+  -c, --bytes=K            output the last K bytes; alternatively, use -c +K\n
+                           to output bytes starting with the Kth of each 
file\n\
 "), stdout);
      fputs (_("\
   -f, --follow[={name|descriptor}]\n\
@@ -272,7 +272,7 @@ Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short 
options too.\n\
 "), stdout);
      printf (_("\
   -n, --lines=K            output the last K lines, instead of the last %d;\n\
-                           or use +K to output lines starting with the Kth\n\
+                           or use -n +K to output lines starting with the 
Kth\n\
       --max-unchanged-stats=N\n\
                            with --follow=name, reopen a FILE which has not\n\
                            changed size after N (default %d) iterations\n\
-- 
1.6.5.rc1