"Howland Craig D (Craig)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Thanks to both Jim and Bob for the answer. Using -v gives the behavior
> that I was expecting (and shows that there is not a problem with od,
> except for what I would consider to be an odd default--which we're stuck
> with for the historical reasons given).
>
> I do have one suggestion/request, though: please explain this behavior
> better in the man page. Both explanations are good, but they came from
> the info page. I don't know how most people go about it, but I rarely
> use info, using man as normal practice. Not being an old-time power
> user of od, the man page entry of
> "-v, --output-duplicates
> do not use * to mark line suppression"
> meant nothing to me--and with no other mention in the man page of line
> suppression it wouldn't. Given the bizarre default of suppressing
> output,
> I suggest that the better info entry for -v is worth pulling into the
> man page.
Sorry, but od's --help output (and man page generated from that) is
already one of the longest. It is designed to be a *quick* reference.
If we start pulling in full option explanations, it would be less
useful in general. We can only hope that people will learn to heed
the "SEE ALSO" reference:
The full documentation for od is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If
the info and od programs are properly installed at your site, the com-
mand
info coreutils od
should give you access to the complete manual.
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