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Documentation discrepancy for ls -f


From: Niels Möller
Subject: Documentation discrepancy for ls -f
Date: 02 Mar 2006 13:27:41 +0100
User-agent: Gnus/5.09 (Gnus v5.9.0) Emacs/21.3

I this still the right place to send bug-reports for GNU ls? Or should
I use bug-coreutils instead?

I'm using "ls (GNU fileutils) 4.0". The info documentation has the
following to say about -f:

`-f'
     Primarily, like `-U'--do not sort; list the files in whatever
     order they are stored in the directory.  But also enable `-a'
     (list all files) and disable `-l', `--color', and `-s' (if they were
     specified before the `-f').

while the message from ls --help says

  -f                         do not sort, enable -aU, disable -lst

This differs with respect to the -t and --color options. That -f
disables --color seems to match the implementation.

I think it would also be helpful to say something about what -f is
intended to be used for and why the option character 'f' (force) is
selected for that. My best guess is that it is intended to make the
operation as efficient as possible, disabling time consuming operation
such as sorting the list and stat()ing all the entries, but I really
don't know the background.

Regards,
/Niels




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