Stan Marsh <[email protected]> writes: > From: Collin Funk > Subject: Re: Maximum width in "fmt" command? > Date: Wed, 07 Oct 2026 18:11:56 -0700 > >>> around to fixing. There are 2 reports in debbugs about it, but I've been >>> getting 504 errors the past few days trying to access it. I'll send them >>> once I can connect again. > >>I was able to load the bug tracker today. Here are those bug reports [1] >>[2]. > >>Collin > >>[1] https://bugs.gnu.org/9680 >>[2] https://bugs.gnu.org/80745 > > Thanks. Incidentally, both of those are "Forbidden" if accessed with > a GUI browser. But I was able to read them in "lynx". > > It seems to me that if the underlying problem (not being able to > follow the general GNU guideline of "no arbitrary limits") can't/won't > be fixed (*), then there should be a "zero mode" which just converts > lines to paragraphs, as described in the OP - and also mentioned in one > of those posts (URLs). It seems that is the most common reason for > wanting a large (unlimited) line length, and that is much easier to > implement (so it seems) as a special feature than as a general "lift > or abolish the limit" sort of thing. > > As noted in one of those posts, it is trivial to do this in AWK (or > Perl or whatever), so it should be an easy addition to "fmt". > > (*) Not that there is anything wrong with that.
Removing the arbitrary limit would require significant reorganization of the existing program. I haven't done it since I am a bit concerned about the behavior changing. I've seen a few invocations of 'fmt' in Makefiles, which we obviously do not want to break. I also don't have access to the paper listed in the Texinfo manual, which makes things even trickier. By the way, can you please add "In-Reply-To" headers to your emails [1]? Without it, mail clients aren't able to properly track threads that you are a part of. Collin [1] https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc822#section-4.6.2
