tag 27128 notabug close 27128 stop On 29/05/17 08:42, davidpbrown wrote: > coreutils v 8.25-2ubuntu2 > > fold -b error wanting no space before the number, inconsistent with > expectation and -w > > > Error: > > $ echo "abcdefghijklm" | fold -b 6 > fold: 6: No such file or directory > > > inconsistent with -w > > $ echo "abcdefghijklm" | fold -w6 > abcdef > ghijkl > m > > $ echo "abcdefghijklm" | fold -w 6 > abcdef > ghijkl > m > > > but works with: > > $ echo "abcdefghijklm" | fold -b6 > abcdef > ghijkl > m
What's happening here is that fold(1) supports arguments of the form `fold -80`. That's undocumented since it's legacy and supported only for compat with old scripts. Therefore -b6 is equivalent to -b -6 which is supported: $ echo "abcdefghijklm" | src/fold -b -6 abcdef ghijkl m The documented form for what you want to do is: echo "abcdefghijklm" | src/fold -b -w6 abcdef ghijkl m thanks, Pádraig
