docs/cut: cut.en.ms annotate

annotate cut.en.ms @ 31:106609b64dc4

minor corrections and improvements in the text

author	markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
date	Tue, 15 Sep 2015 17:20:20 +0200
parents	6977e2ee5dc5
children	5f78bcd34eeb

rev	line source
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	1 .so macros
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	2 .lc_ctype en_US.utf8
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	3 .pl -4v
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	4
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	5 .TL
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	6 Cut out selected fields of each line of a file
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	7 .AU
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	8 markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	9 ..
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	10 .FS
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	11 2015-05.
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	12 This text is in the public domain (CC0).
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	13 It is available online:
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	14 .I http://marmaro.de/docs/
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	15 .FE
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	16
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	17 .LP
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	18 Cut is a classic program in the Unix toolchest.
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	19 It is present in most tutorials on shell programming, because it
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	20 is such a nice and useful tool with good explanatory value.
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	21 This text shall take a look underneath its surface.
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	22 .SH
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	23 Usage
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	24 .LP
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	25 Initially, cut had two operation modes, which were later amended
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	26 by a third: The cut program may cut specified characters or bytes
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	27 out of the input lines or it may cut out specified fields, which
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	28 are defined by a delimiting character.
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	29 .PP
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	30 The character mode is well suited to slice fixed-width input
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	31 formats into parts. One might, for instance, extract the access
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	32 rights from the output of \f(CWls -l\fP, as shown here with the
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	33 rights of a file's owner:
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	34 .CS
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	35 $ ls -l foo
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	36 -rw-rw-r-- 1 meillo users 0 May 12 07:32 foo
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	37 .sp .3
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	38 $ ls -l foo \| cut -c 2-4
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	39 rw-
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	40 .CE
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	41 .LP
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	42 Or the write permission for the owner, the group, and the
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	43 world:
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	44 .CS
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	45 $ ls -l foo \| cut -c 3,6,9
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	46 ww-
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	47 .CE
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	48 .LP
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	49 Cut can also be used to shorten strings:
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	50 .CS
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	51 $ long=12345678901234567890
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	52 .sp .3
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	53 $ echo "$long" \| cut -c -10
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	54 1234567890
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	55 .CE
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	56 .LP
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	57 This command outputs no more than the first 10 characters of
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	58 \f(CW$long\fP. (Alternatively, on could use \f(CWprintf
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	59 "%.10s\\n" "$long"\fP for this task.)
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	60 .PP
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	61 However, if it's not about displaying characters, but rather about
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	62 storing them, then \f(CW-c\fP is only partly suited. In former times,
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	63 when US-ASCII was the omnipresent character encoding, each
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	64 character was stored as exactly one byte. Therefore, \f(CWcut
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	65 -c\fP selected both output characters and bytes equally. With
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	66 the uprise of multi-byte encodings (like UTF-8), this assumption
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	67 became obsolete. Consequently, a byte mode (option \f(CW-b\fP)
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	68 was added to cut, with POSIX.2-1992. To select up to 500 bytes
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	69 from the beginning of each line (and ignore the rest), one can use:
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	70 .CS
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	71 $ cut -b -500
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	72 .CE
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	73 .LP
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	74 The remainder can be caught with \f(CWcut -b 501-\fP. This
30 6977e2ee5dc5 Another minor text change markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 29 diff changeset	75 use of cut is important for POSIX, because it provides a
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	76 transformation of text files with arbitrary line lenghts to text
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	77 files with limited line length
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	78 .[[ http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/cut.html#tag_20_28_17 .
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	79 .PP
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	80 The introduction of the new byte mode essentially held the same
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	81 functionality as the old character mode. The character mode,
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	82 however, required a new, different implementation. In consequence,
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	83 the problem was not the support of the byte mode, but rather the
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	84 correct support of the new character mode.
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	85 .PP
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	86 Besides the character and byte modes, cut also offers a field
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	87 mode, which is activated by \f(CW-f\fP. It selects fields from
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	88 the input. The field-delimiter character for the input as well
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	89 as for the output (by default the tab) may be changed using
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	90 \f(CW-d\fP.
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	91 .PP
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	92 The typical example for the use of cut's field mode is the
31 106609b64dc4 minor corrections and improvements in the text markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 30 diff changeset	93 selection of information from the password file. Here, for
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	94 instance, the usernames and their uids:
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	95 .CS
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	96 $ cut -d: -f1,3 /etc/passwd
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	97 root:0
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	98 bin:1
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	99 daemon:2
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	100 mail:8
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	101 ...
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	102 .CE
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	103 .LP
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	104 (The values to the command line switches may be appended directly
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	105 to them or separated by whitespace.)
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	106 .PP
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	107 The field mode is suited for simple tabulary data, like the
31 106609b64dc4 minor corrections and improvements in the text markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 30 diff changeset	108 password file. Beyond that, it soon reaches its limits. The typical
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	109 case of whitespace-separated fields, in particular, is covered
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	110 poorly by it. Cut's delimiter is exactly one character,
29 c0b522e689bc Some more minor rework based on Kate's comments markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 28 diff changeset	111 therefore one can not split at both space and tab characters.
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	112 Furthermore, multiple adjacent delimiter characters lead to
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	113 empty fields. This is not the expected behavior for
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	114 the processing of whitespace-separated fields. Some
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	115 implementations, e.g. the one of FreeBSD, have extensions that
29 c0b522e689bc Some more minor rework based on Kate's comments markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 28 diff changeset	116 handle this case in the expected way. On other systems or
c0b522e689bc Some more minor rework based on Kate's comments markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 28 diff changeset	117 to stay portable, awk comes to rescue.
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	118 .PP
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	119 Awk provides another functionality that cut lacks: Changing the order
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	120 of the fields in the output. For cut, the order of the field
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	121 selection specification is irrelevant; it doesn't even matter if
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	122 fields occur multiple times. Thus, the invocation
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	123 \f(CWcut -c 5-8,1,4-6\fP outputs the characters number
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	124 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 in exactly this order. The
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	125 selection specification resembles mathematical set theory: Each
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	126 specified field is part of the solution set. The fields in the
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	127 solution set are always in the same order as in the input. To
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	128 speak with the words of the man page in Version 8 Unix:
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	129 ``In data base parlance, it projects a relation.''
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	130 .[[ http://man.cat-v.org/unix_8th/1/cut
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	131 This means that cut applies the \fIprojection\fP database operation
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	132 to the text input. Wikipedia explains it in the following way:
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	133 ``In practical terms, it can be roughly thought of as picking a
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	134 sub-set of all available columns.''
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	135 .[[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Projection_(relational_algebra)
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	136
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	137 .SH
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	138 Historical Background
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	139 .LP
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	140 Cut came to public life in 1982 with the release of UNIX System
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	141 III. Browsing through the sources of System III, one finds cut.c
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	142 with the timestamp 1980-04-11
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	143 .[[ http://minnie.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=SysIII/usr/src/cmd .
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	144 This is the oldest implementation of the program I was able to
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	145 discover. However, the SCCS-ID in the source code contains the
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	146 version number 1.5. According to Doug McIlroy
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	147 .[[ http://minnie.tuhs.org/pipermail/tuhs/2015-May/004083.html ,
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	148 the earlier history likely lies in PWB/UNIX, which was the
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	149 basis for System III. In the available sources of PWB 1.0 (1977)
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	150 .[[ http://minnie.tuhs.org/Archive/PDP-11/Distributions/usdl/ ,
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	151 no cut is present. Of PWB 2.0, no sources or useful documentation
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	152 seem to be available. PWB 3.0 was later renamed to System III
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	153 for marketing purposes only; it is otherwise identical to it. A
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	154 branch of PWB was CB UNIX, which was only used in the Bell Labs
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	155 internally. The manual of CB UNIX Edition 2.1 of November 1979
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	156 contains the earliest mention of cut that my research brought
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	157 to light, in the form of a man page
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	158 .[[ ftp://sunsite.icm.edu.pl/pub/unix/UnixArchive/PDP-11/Distributions/other/CB_Unix/cbunix_man1_02.pdf .
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	159 .PP
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	160 A look at BSD: There, my earliest discovery is a cut.c with
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	161 the file modification date of 1986-11-07
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	162 .[[ http://minnie.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=4.3BSD-UWisc/src/usr.bin/cut
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	163 as part of the special version 4.3BSD-UWisc
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	164 .[[ http://gunkies.org/wiki/4.3_BSD_NFS_Wisconsin_Unix ,
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	165 which was released in January 1987.
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	166 This implementation is mostly identical to the one in System
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	167 III. The better known 4.3BSD-Tahoe (1988) does not contain cut.
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	168 The subsequent 4.3BSD-Reno (1990) does include cut. It is a freshly
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	169 written one by Adam S. Moskowitz and Marciano Pitargue, which was
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	170 included in BSD in 1989
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	171 .[[ http://minnie.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=4.3BSD-Reno/src/usr.bin/cut .
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	172 Its man page
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	173 .[[ http://minnie.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=4.3BSD-Reno/src/usr.bin/cut/cut.1
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	174 already mentions the expected compliance to POSIX.2.
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	175 One should note that POSIX.2 was first published in
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	176 September 1992, about two years after the man page and the
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	177 program were written. Hence, the program must have been
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	178 implemented based on a draft version of the standard. A look into
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	179 the code confirms the assumption. The function to parse the field
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	180 selection includes the following comment:
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	181 .QP
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	182 This parser is less restrictive than the Draft 9 POSIX spec.
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	183 POSIX doesn't allow lists that aren't in increasing order or
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	184 overlapping lists.
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	185 .LP
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	186 Draft 11.2 of POSIX (1991-09) requires this flexibility already:
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	187 .QP
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	188 The elements in list can be repeated, can overlap, and can
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	189 be specified in any order.
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	190 .LP
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	191 The same draft additionally includes all three operation modes,
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	192 whereas this early BSD cut only implemented the original two.
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	193 Draft 9 might not have included the byte mode. Without access to
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	194 Draft 9 or 10, it wasn't possible to verify this guess.
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	195 .PP
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	196 The version numbers and change dates of the older BSD
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	197 implementations are manifested in the SCCS-IDs, which the
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	198 version control system of that time inserted. For instance
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	199 in 4.3BSD-Reno: ``5.3 (Berkeley) 6/24/90''.
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	200 .PP
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	201 The cut implementation of the GNU coreutils contains the
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	202 following copyright notice:
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	203 .CS
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	204 Copyright (C) 1997-2015 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	205 Copyright (C) 1984 David M. Ihnat
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	206 .CE
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	207 .LP
31 106609b64dc4 minor corrections and improvements in the text markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 30 diff changeset	208 This code does have old origins. Further comments show that
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	209 the source code was reworked by David MacKenzie first and later
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	210 by Jim Meyering, who put it into the version control system in
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	211 1992. It is unclear why the years until 1997, at least from
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	212 1992 onwards, don't show up in the copyright notice.
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	213 .PP
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	214 Despite all those year numbers from the 80s, cut is a rather
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	215 young tool, at least in relation to the early Unix. Despite
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	216 being a decade older than Linux (the kernel), Unix was present
31 106609b64dc4 minor corrections and improvements in the text markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 30 diff changeset	217 for over ten years already by the time cut appeared for the first
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	218 time. Most notably, cut wasn't part of Version 7 Unix, which
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	219 became the basis for all modern Unix systems. The more complex
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	220 tools sed and awk were part of it already. Hence, the
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	221 question comes to mind why cut was written at all, as two
31 106609b64dc4 minor corrections and improvements in the text markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 30 diff changeset	222 programs already existed that were able to cover its use
106609b64dc4 minor corrections and improvements in the text markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 30 diff changeset	223 cases. One reason for cut surely was its compactness and the
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	224 resulting speed, in comparison to the then-bulky awk. This lean
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	225 shape goes well with the Unix philosopy: Do one job and do it
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	226 well! Cut was sufficiently convincing. It found its way to
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	227 other Unix variants, it became standardized, and today it is
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	228 present everywhere.
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	229 .PP
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	230 The original variant (without \f(CW-b\fP) was described already
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	231 in 1985, by the System V Interface Definition, an important
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	232 formal description of UNIX System V. In the following years, it
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	233 appeared in all relevant standards. POSIX.2 specified cut for
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	234 the first time in its modern form (with \f(CW-b\fP) in 1992.
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	235
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	236 .SH
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	237 Multi-byte support
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	238 .LP
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	239 The byte mode and thus the multi-byte support of the POSIX
29 c0b522e689bc Some more minor rework based on Kate's comments markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 28 diff changeset	240 character mode have been standardized since 1992. But are
c0b522e689bc Some more minor rework based on Kate's comments markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 28 diff changeset	241 they present in the available implementations? Which versions
c0b522e689bc Some more minor rework based on Kate's comments markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 28 diff changeset	242 implement POSIX correctly?
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	243 .PP
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	244 The situation is divided into three parts: There are historic
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	245 implementations, which have only \f(CW-c\fP and \f(CW-f\fP.
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	246 Then there are implementations that have \f(CW-b\fP, but
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	247 treat it as an alias for \f(CW-c\fP only. These
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	248 implementations work correctly for single-byte encodings
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	249 (e.g. US-ASCII, Latin1) but for multi-byte encodings (e.g.
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	250 UTF-8) their \f(CW-c\fP behaves like \f(CW-b\fP (and
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	251 \f(CW-n\fP is ignored). Finally, there are implementations
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	252 that implement \f(CW-c\fP and \f(CW-b\fP in a POSIX-compliant
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	253 way.
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	254 .PP
29 c0b522e689bc Some more minor rework based on Kate's comments markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 28 diff changeset	255 Historic two-mode implementations are the ones of
31 106609b64dc4 minor corrections and improvements in the text markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 30 diff changeset	256 System III, System V, and the BSD ones until the mid-90s.
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	257 .PP
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	258 Pseudo multi-byte implementations are provided by GNU,
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	259 modern NetBSD, and modern OpenBSD. The level of POSIX compliance
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	260 that is presented there is often higher than the level of
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	261 compliance that is actually provided. Sometimes it takes a
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	262 close look to discover that \f(CW-c\fP and \f(CW-n\fP don't
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	263 behave as expected. Some of the implementations take the
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	264 easy way by simply being ignorant to any multi-byte
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	265 encodings, at least they declare that clearly:
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	266 .QP
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	267 Since we don't support multi-byte characters, the \f(CW-c\fP
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	268 and \f(CW-b\fP options are equivalent, and the \f(CW-n\fP
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	269 option is meaningless.
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	270 .[[ http://cvsweb.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/src/usr.bin/cut/cut.c?rev=1.18&content-type=text/x-cvsweb-markup
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	271 .LP
31 106609b64dc4 minor corrections and improvements in the text markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 30 diff changeset	272 Standard-adhering implementations, i.e. ones that treat
106609b64dc4 minor corrections and improvements in the text markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 30 diff changeset	273 multi-byte characters correctly, are those of the modern
106609b64dc4 minor corrections and improvements in the text markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 30 diff changeset	274 FreeBSD and the Heirloom toolchest. Tim Robbins
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	275 reimplemented the character mode of FreeBSD cut,
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	276 conforming to POSIX, in the summer of 2004
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	277 .[[ https://svnweb.freebsd.org/base?view=revision&revision=131194 .
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	278 The question why the other BSD systems have not
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	279 integrated this change is an open one. Maybe the answer an be
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	280 found in the above quoted statement.
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	281 .PP
31 106609b64dc4 minor corrections and improvements in the text markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 30 diff changeset	282 How do users find out if the cut on their own system handles
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	283 multi-byte characters correctly? First, one needs to check if
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	284 the system itself uses multi-byte characters, because otherwise
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	285 characters and bytes are equivalent and the question
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	286 is irrelevant. One can check this by looking at the locale
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	287 settings, but it is easier to print a typical multi-byte
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	288 character, for instance an Umlaut or the Euro currency
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	289 symbol, and check if one or more bytes are generated as
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	290 output:
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	291 .CS
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	292 $ echo ä \| od -c
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	293 0000000 303 244 \\n
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	294 0000003
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	295 .CE
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	296 .LP
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	297 In this case it resulted in two bytes: octal 303 and 244. (The
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	298 newline character is added by echo.)
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	299 .PP
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	300 The program iconv converts text to specific encodings. This
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	301 is the output for Latin1 and UTF-8, for comparison:
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	302 .CS
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	303 $ echo ä \| iconv -t latin1 \| od -c
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	304 0000000 344 \\n
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	305 0000002
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	306 .sp .3
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	307 $ echo ä \| iconv -t utf8 \| od -c
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	308 0000000 303 244 \\n
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	309 0000003
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	310 .CE
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	311 .LP
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	312 The output (without the iconv conversion) on many European
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	313 systems equals one of these two.
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	314 .PP
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	315 Now for the test of the cut implementation. On a UTF-8 system, a
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	316 POSIX-compliant implementation behaves as such:
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	317 .CS
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	318 $ echo ä \| cut -c 1 \| od -c
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	319 0000000 303 244 \\n
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	320 0000003
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	321 .sp .3
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	322 $ echo ä \| cut -b 1 \| od -c
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	323 0000000 303 \\n
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	324 0000002
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	325 .sp .3
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	326 $ echo ä \| cut -b 1 -n \| od -c
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	327 0000000 \\n
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	328 0000001
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	329 .CE
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	330 .LP
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	331 A pseudo-POSIX implementation, in contrast, behaves like the
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	332 middle one for all three invocations: Only the first byte is
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	333 printed as output.
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	334
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	335 .SH
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	336 Implementations
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	337 .LP
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	338 Let's take a look at the sources of a selection of
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	339 implementations.
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	340 .PP
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	341 A comparison of the amount of source code is good to get a first
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	342 impression. Typically, it grows through time. This can generally
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	343 be seen here, but not in all cases. A POSIX-compliant
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	344 implementation of the character mode requires more code, thus
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	345 these implementations tend to be the larger ones.
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	346 .TS
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	347 center;
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	348 r r r l l l.
31 106609b64dc4 minor corrections and improvements in the text markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 30 diff changeset	349 SLOC Lines Bytes Belongs to File time Category
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	350 _
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	351 116 123 2966 System III 1980-04-11 historic
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	352 118 125 3038 4.3BSD-UWisc 1986-11-07 historic
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	353 200 256 5715 4.3BSD-Reno 1990-06-25 historic
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	354 200 270 6545 NetBSD 1993-03-21 historic
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	355 218 290 6892 OpenBSD 2008-06-27 pseudo-POSIX
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	356 224 296 6920 FreeBSD 1994-05-27 historic
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	357 232 306 7500 NetBSD 2014-02-03 pseudo-POSIX
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	358 340 405 7423 Heirloom 2012-05-20 POSIX
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	359 382 586 14175 GNU coreutils 1992-11-08 pseudo-POSIX
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	360 391 479 10961 FreeBSD 2012-11-24 POSIX
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	361 588 830 23167 GNU coreutils 2015-05-01 pseudo-POSIX
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	362 .TE
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	363 .LP
31 106609b64dc4 minor corrections and improvements in the text markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 30 diff changeset	364 There are four rough groups: (1) The two original
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	365 implementations, which are mostly identical, with about 100
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	366 SLOC. (2) The five BSD versions, with about 200 SLOC. (3) The
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	367 two POSIX-compliant versions and the old GNU one, with a SLOC
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	368 count in the 300s. And finally, (4) the modern GNU cut with
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	369 almost 600 SLOC.
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	370 .PP
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	371 The variation between the number of logical code
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	372 lines (SLOC, measured with SLOCcount) and the number of
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	373 newlines in the file (\f(CWwc -l\fP) spans between factor
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	374 1.06 for the oldest versions and factor 1.5 for GNU. The
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	375 largest influence on it are empty lines, pure comment lines,
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	376 and the size of the license block at the beginning of the file.
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	377 .PP
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	378 Regarding the variation between logical code lines and the
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	379 file size (\f(CWwc -c\fP), the implementations span between
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	380 25 and 30 bytes per statement. With only 21 bytes per
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	381 statement, the Heirloom implementation marks the lower end;
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	382 the GNU implementation sets the upper limit at nearly 40 bytes. In
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	383 the case of GNU, the reason is mainly their coding style, with
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	384 special indentation rules and long identifiers. Whether one finds
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	385 the Heirloom implementation
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	386 .[[ http://heirloom.cvs.sourceforge.net/viewvc/heirloom/heirloom/cut/cut.c?revision=1.6&view=markup
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	387 highly cryptic or exceptionally elegant shall be left
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	388 to the judgement of the reader. Especially the
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	389 comparison to the GNU implementation
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	390 .[[ http://git.savannah.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=coreutils.git;a=blob;f=src/cut.c;hb=e981643
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	391 is impressive.
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	392 .PP
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	393 The internal structure of the source code (in all cases it is
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	394 written in C) is mainly similar. Besides the mandatory main
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	395 function, which does the command line argument processing,
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	396 there usually is a function to convert the field
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	397 selection specification to an internal data structure.
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	398 Furthermore, almost all implementations have separate
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	399 functions for each of their operation modes. The POSIX-compliant
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	400 versions treat the \f(CW-b -n\fP combination as a separate
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	401 mode and thus implement it in a separate function. Only the early
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	402 System III implementation (and its 4.3BSD-UWisc variant) do
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	403 everything, apart from error handling, in the main function.
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	404 .PP
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	405 Implementations of cut typically have two limiting aspects:
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	406 One being the maximum number of fields that can be handled,
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	407 the other being the maximum line length. On System III, both
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	408 numbers are limited to 512. 4.3BSD-Reno and the BSDs of the
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	409 90s have fixed limits as well (\f(CW_BSD_LINE_MAX\fP or
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	410 \f(CW_POSIX2_LINE_MAX\fP). Modern FreeBSD, modern NetBSD, all GNU
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	411 implementations, and the Heirloom cut are able to handle
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	412 arbitrary numbers of fields and line lengths \(en the memory
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	413 is allocated dynamically. OpenBSD cut is a hybrid: It has a fixed
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	414 maximum number of fields, but allows arbitrary line lengths.
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	415 The limited number of fields does not, however, appear to be
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	416 any practical problem, because \f(CW_POSIX2_LINE_MAX\fP is
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	417 guaranteed to be at least 2048 and is thus probably large enough.
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	418
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	419 .SH
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	420 Descriptions
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	421 .LP
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	422 Interesting, as well, is a comparison of the short descriptions
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	423 of cut, as can be found in the headlines of the man
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	424 pages or at the beginning of the source code files.
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	425 The following list is roughly grouped by origin:
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	426 .TS
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	427 center;
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	428 l l.
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	429 CB UNIX cut out selected fields of each line of a file
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	430 System III cut out selected fields of each line of a file
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	431 System III \(dg cut and paste columns of a table (projection of a relation)
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	432 System V cut out selected fields of each line of a file
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	433 HP-UX cut out (extract) selected fields of each line of a file
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	434 .sp .3
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	435 4.3BSD-UWisc \(dg cut and paste columns of a table (projection of a relation)
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	436 4.3BSD-Reno select portions of each line of a file
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	437 NetBSD select portions of each line of a file
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	438 OpenBSD 4.6 select portions of each line of a file
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	439 FreeBSD 1.0 select portions of each line of a file
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	440 FreeBSD 10.0 cut out selected portions of each line of a file
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	441 SunOS 4.1.3 remove selected fields from each line of a file
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	442 SunOS 5.5.1 cut out selected fields of each line of a file
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	443 .sp .3
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	444 Heirloom Tools cut out selected fields of each line of a file
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	445 Heirloom Tools \(dg cut out fields of lines of files
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	446 .sp .3
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	447 GNU coreutils remove sections from each line of files
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	448 .sp .3
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	449 Minix select out columns of a file
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	450 .sp .3
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	451 Version 8 Unix rearrange columns of data
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	452 ``Unix Reader'' rearrange columns of text
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	453 .sp .3
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	454 POSIX cut out selected fields of each line of a file
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	455 .TE
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	456 .LP
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	457 (The descriptions that are marked with `\(dg' were taken from
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	458 source code files. The POSIX entry contains the description
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	459 used in the standard. The ``Unix Reader'' is a retrospective
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	460 document by Doug McIlroy, which lists the availability of
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	461 tools in the Research Unix versions
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	462 .[[ http://doc.cat-v.org/unix/unix-reader/contents.pdf .
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	463 Its description should actually match the one in Version 8
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	464 Unix. The change could be a transfer mistake or a correction.
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	465 All other descriptions originate from the various man pages.)
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	466 .PP
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	467 Over time, the POSIX description was often adopted or it
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	468 served as inspiration. One such example is FreeBSD
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	469 .[[ https://svnweb.freebsd.org/base?view=revision&revision=167101 .
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	470 .PP
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	471 It is noteworthy that the GNU coreutils in all versions
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	472 describe the performed action as a removal of parts of the
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	473 input, although the user clearly selects the parts that then
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	474 consistute the output. Probably the words ``cut out'' are too
0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	475 misleading. HP-UX tried to be more clear.
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	476 .PP
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	477 Different terms are also used for the part being
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	478 selected. Some talk about fields (POSIX), some talk
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	479 about portions (BSD) and some call it columns (Research
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	480 Unix).
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	481 .PP
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	482 The seemingly least adequate description, the one of Version
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	483 8 Unix (``rearrange columns of data'') is explainable in so
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	484 far that the man page covers both cut and paste, and in
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	485 their combination, columns can be rearranged. The use of
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	486 ``data'' instead of ``text'' might be a lapse, which McIlroy
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	487 corrected in his Unix Reader ... but on the other hand, on
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	488 Unix, the two words are mostly synonymous, because all data
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	489 is text.
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	490
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	491
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	492 .SH
28 0d7329867dd1 Applied most of the corrections by Kate markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 27 diff changeset	493 References
27 5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	494 .LP
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	495 .nf
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	496 ._r
5cefcfc72d42 Added first version of the translation to English markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	497

Mercurial > docs > cut

annotate cut.en.ms @ 31:106609b64dc4