On 28/07/2025 17:06, Stan Marsh wrote:
Paul wrote:
Then Pádraig Brady wrote:
Reading POSIX more closely I see there is also pause logic for the first page
only:
-f [XSI] [Option Start] Use a <form-feed> for new pages, instead of the
-------------------------------^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ (!)
default
behavior that uses a sequence of <newline> characters.
Pause before beginning the first page if the standard output is
associated with a terminal. [Option End]
How can it be both?
Then Paul wrote:
If neither -p nor -f is specified, pr doesn't pause.
If -p is specified, pr pauses before every output page, regardless of whether
-f is
also specified.
If -f but not -p is specified, pr pauses only before the first output page.
I think there is a misunderstanding here.
The point is that -f is already taken; it is a synonym for -F.
So, it can't be re-purposed to mean: pause only before the first output page,
without breaking any script or human who depends on it meaning: use form feeds.
Yes it's a fair point.
We don't want existing scripts that use -f to start pausing unexpectedly.
I suppose this is a case for only pausing with -f if POSIXLY_CORRECT
env var is set.
cheers,
Padraig
