On Mon, Jul 03, 2017 at 02:38:33PM +0200, Ruediger Meier wrote: > On Monday 03 July 2017, Karel Zak wrote: > > Maybe it would be possible to convince me that coreutils way for > > options arguments is the right way :-)) > > > > I mean: > > > > --output COLUMNS > > --length SIZE > > --net[=FILE] > > > > ...etc. The question is how to compose the option string to minimize > > duplication and inform about a format, for example > > > > --output COLUMNS list of columns to display (see below) > > > > > > Note that on many places we for example for SIZE accept suffixes > > (MiB, GiB...) but this info is nowhere in the --help output. > > Coreutils is using some of these capitalized words really as > system-wide keywords. For example SIZE: > > The SIZE argument is an integer and optional unit (example: 10K is 10*1024). > Units are K,M,G,T,P,E,Z,Y (powers of 1024) or KB,MB,... (powers of 1000). > > BTW this is my only coreutils patch to make the size description > human understandable and let it fit into two 80 char columns. ;) > > There was a big discussion about this here in bug#9939 > https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-coreutils/2011-11/threads.html#00002 > > > > And note that I like the William's idea with the explicit reader > > redirection "(see below)". > > Yep, IMO the "see below" is good *always* if the overall text is a bit > longer. In case there are only a few lines or if obvious (like FILE), it > *may* be skipped, I would say. I agree. What about the section where we explain the references? I personally prefer sentence-like way: Available COLUMNS: ... The SIZE argument... More complex example (lsblk): now: -e, --exclude <list> exclude devices by major number (default: RAM disks) -I, --include <list> show only devices with specified major numbers -o, --output <list> output columns -x, --sort <column> sort output by <column> after change: -e, --exclude MAJOR exclude specified devices (see below) -I, --include MAJOR show only specified devices (see below) -o, --output COLUMNS output columns (see below) -x, --sort COLUMN sort output by column The MAJOR command separated list of the device major numbers. The ramdisk devices are excluded by default. Available COLUMNS: NAME device name KNAME internal kernel device name ... Objections, comment? Karel -- Karel Zak <kzak@xxxxxxxxxx> http://karelzak.blogspot.com -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe util-linux" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
