bug#10019: sort options -Mn are incompatible

[Eric Blake]

On 11/12/2011 06:54 AM, Eric Blake wrote:
> POS is F[.C][OPTS], where F is the field number and C the character position
> in the field; both are origin 1.  If neither -t nor -b is in effect,
> characters
> in a field are counted from the beginning of the preceding whitespace.
> OPTS is
> one or more single-letter ordering options, which override global ordering
> options for that key.  If no key is given, use the entire line as the key.
> 
> In particular, -k1b,1 is different than -k1,1b, but most other OPTS can
> occur in either position with no change in behavior.
> 
> I like [OPTS] slightly better than [ORD], given that you can have more
> than one (as in -k1bn,1).

In fact, this thread prompted me to file a bug against POSIX, where a
strict reading of the existing text says that portable clients cannot
use more than one OPT simultaneously, even though all implementations
that I tried support that usage.

http://austingroupbugs.net/view.php?id=510

-- 
Eric Blake   address@hidden    +1-919-301-3266
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org

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