Package: coreutils Version: 5.97-5.4 Severity: wishlist du has a `--files0-from' option to read a NULL separated list of files. An additional similar `--files-from' option to read a NEWLINE separated list of files would be helpful for the following reasons:
* Many programs, notably in the coreutils package, can only deal with NEWLINE separated lists (ls, tail, head, wc). I also did not manage to get a NULL character to be used by bash as a field separator (setting IFS to $'\0' does not work) so I would say that it is at least not easy to do so, and possibly impossible. * Many programs default to a NEWLINE as a separator (sort, find, sed, awk). * A NEWLINE separated list can be easily viewed on screen and easily edited. * Though NEWLINEs can be part of a filename, they are avoided, and thus for an ad-hoc script, it is not worth dealing with filenames containing NEWLINEs. To ease the interoperability of du with other common UNIX programs (notably those in the same package as du i.e. coreutils), please add a `--files-from' option to du that reads a NEWLINE separated list of files from a given file. Regards P.S. Making other programs of the coreutils package able to deal with NULL terminated "lines" would also be nice. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
