[PATCH v2] ar: Add --thin for creating thin archives

[Jan Beulich]

On 10.01.2022 23:34, Fangrui Song via Binutils wrote:
> In many ar implementations (FreeBSD, elfutils, etc), ar -T has the
> X/Open System Interface specified semantics. Therefore -T for thin
> archives is not recommended for portability.
> 
>     PR binutils/28759
>     * ar.c (long_options): Add --thin.
>     (usage) Add --thin. Soft deprecate -T.
>     * doc/binutils.texi: Add doc.
>     * NEWS: Mention --thin.
>     * binutils/testsuite/binutils-all/ar.exp: Add tests.
> ---
>  binutils/NEWS                          |  4 ++++
>  binutils/ar.c                          |  4 +++-
>  binutils/doc/binutils.texi             | 15 ++++++++++-----
>  binutils/testsuite/binutils-all/ar.exp | 17 +++++++++++++++++
>  4 files changed, 34 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/binutils/NEWS b/binutils/NEWS
> index 903f8233b99..d62f019bc82 100644
> --- a/binutils/NEWS
> +++ b/binutils/NEWS
> @@ -18,6 +18,10 @@
>  * Support for efi-app-aarch64, efi-rtdrv-aarch64 and efi-bsdrv-aarch64 has been
>    added to objcopy in order to enable UEFI development using binutils.
>  
> +* ar: Add --thin for creating thin archives. -T is deprecated (no diagnostic)
> +  for because in many ar implementations -T has a different meaning from X/Open
> +  System Interface.

I'm not a native speaker, so I may be entirely off, but this wording reads
to me as the opposite of what the description says: It feels as if you said
"has a meaning different from X/Open System Interface" (two words swapped).
Yet aiui you mean "has a meaning as in the X/Open System Interface". If I
was to suggest a wording change keeping your text largely intact, how about
"has a different meaning, as specified by the X/Open System Interface"?

I also wonder about "for because". Imo it should be just one of the two,
and if "for" was chosen, grammar would need adjusting later in the sentence.

Same (obviously) for the doc change.

Jan