Problems with 'tail -n *'
Dave Korn
dave.korn@artimi.com
Wed Oct 29 18:09:00 GMT 2008
Gustavo Seabra wrote on 29 October 2008 17:39:
>> The "-NNN" form is an abbreviation for "-n NNN". If you write it out
>> in full, it works:
>>
>> $ tail -n 2 *.dat
>>
>
> OK, I see that now. Thanks. But is there a reason why the abbreviation
> is not working in cygwin? It works just fine in a different system...
From your original post:
> It works fine on a linux computer we have (tail (coreutils) 5.2.1).
> $ tail --version
> tail (GNU coreutils) 6.10
So the reason is "because you're using different versions". I would guess
that the behaviour was changed on purpose by the coreutils maintainers.
Looking at /usr/share/doc/coreutils-6.10/NEWS suggests there have been a
number of changes for POSIX conformance; and I notice:
" In the following cases POSIX allows the default GNU behavior,
so when POSIXLY_CORRECT is set:
[ . . . ]
tail supports two or more files when using the obsolete option syntax. "
There may have been a regression arising; it doesn't seem to make any
difference to my testing if I set POSIXLY_CORRECT, or then again maybe
POSIXLY_CORRECT is defaulted on for Cygwin, because setting it on my Linux
system stops it from working and gives me an error message:
[dk@ori ~]$ export POSIXLY_CORRECT=1
[dk@ori ~]$ tail -2 *.txt
tail: too many arguments; When using tail's obsolescent option syntax (-2)
there may be no more than one file argument. Use the equivalent -n or -c
option instead.
[dk@ori ~]$
I see Eric (the cygwin coreutils maintainer) has just sent a reply; let's
see what he has to say.
cheers,
DaveK
--
Can't think of a witty .sigline today....
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