On 03/11/2011 01:29 PM, Roger N. Clark wrote: >> Basically, POSIX 2001 and newer does _not_ require -3 to be parsed as a >> valid option (rather, the POSIX spelling is -n -3), so GNU coreutils is >> supporting -3 as an extension. >> >> Then I looked at the actual POSIX 2008 wording: >> http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/tail.html >> >> tail [-f] [-c number|-n number] [file]
>
> Thank you for the quick reply. I'm fine with needing to say -n -3.
Yes, POSIX is clear that '-n -3' and '-n 3' have the same meaning as the
traditional '-3'.
> Perhaps the man page needs to be clearer, so should be changed from the
> current:
>
> -n, --lines=N
> output the last N lines, instead of the last 10
That's not current. Coreutils 8.10 is the latest release, and the man
page from that version (as well as 'tail --help', from which the man
page is generated) states:
-n, --lines=K
output the last K lines, instead of the last 10; or use -n
+K to
output lines starting with the Kth
--
Eric Blake [email protected] +1-801-349-2682
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org
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