Thanks for the explanation, some minor comments:
On Feb 6, 2007, at 9:16 AM, Eric Blake wrote:
<...>
[EMAIL PROTECTED] tmp]$ tail --version
tail (GNU coreutils) 5.97
Consider upgrading - the lateset stable version is 6.7. It will not
change the behavior of tail in your case, but has other improvements.
Well, yum gives me what I have as the latest version, 6.7 does not
appear visible in my repository...
The short answer is that POSIX is the driving factor here, and that
Fedora
core 6 has chosen POSIX 1003.1-2001 as their default. Depending on
which
version of POSIX you are compliant with, tail is specified to treat +3
differently. This is documented in the NEWS for 5.90:
Sadly, I have not kept up with the news, but the facts that (a) the
change is incompatible and (b) the new (POSIX) syntax is quite ugly
give one a considerable amount of pause. Traditionally, gnu utilities
appear to have not been too constrained by posix ((g)awk is a notable
example, where you can get POSIX behavior by --posix, but you are not
obliged to).
Anyway, thanks again for the comments.
Igor
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