On 27/08/15 13:06, Stephane Chazelas wrote: > 2015-08-27 00:05:49 +0100, Pádraig Brady: > [...] >>> $ split -n10 -a4 -d5 echo.txt >>> split: cannot split in more than one way >>> Try 'split --help' for more information. >>> >>> where as using longer option for `-d` i.e. `--numeric-suffixes` works fine. >>> >>> $ split -n10 -a4 --numeric-suffixes=5 echo.txt >>> >>> >>> FYI: I had asked it on unix.stackexchange as well, for reference >>> http://unix.stackexchange.com/q/225704/17265 >> >> -d can't take an _optional_ argument for backwards compat >> and operational reasons. I.E. generally short options >> can't take an optional argument due to ambiguities that would introduce. >> >> The particular ambiguity in this case is that -d5 is equivalent >> to -d -5, which is equivalent to -d -l5, hence the error. > [...] > > Note that GNU getopt supports short options with optional > arguments (though doesn't allow an empty argument like the long > option version). > > The split documentation could be improved to avoid this kind of > confusion: > > info page: > > `-l LINES' > `--lines=LINES' > Put LINES lines of INPUT into each output file. > > For compatibility `split' also supports an obsolete option syntax > `-LINES'. New scripts should use `-l LINES' instead. > [...] > `-d' > `--numeric-suffixes[=FROM]' > Use digits in suffixes rather than lower-case letters. The > numerical suffix counts from FROM if specified, 0 otherwise. Note > specifying a FROM value also disables the default auto suffix > length expansion described above, and so you may also want to > specify `-a' to allow suffixes beyond `99'. > > It's easy to miss that it's not `-d[FROM]` here. A note along > these lines could help: > > "Note that the FROM value can only be specified with the long > option from."
Done at: http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=coreutils.git;a=commitdiff;h=da5505dd7f I can't think of any suitably terse improvements for the man page. thanks, Pádraig.
