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

[Fangrui Song]

On 2022-01-11, Jan Beulich wrote:
>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
>
Me neither:) Thank you for the suggestion! I'll adopt it.
"... many ar implementations @option{T} has a different meaning, as specified
by X/Open System Interface."