Re: Bug in "ls"

[Bob Proulx]

> I just installed RedHat 7.1.  The "ls" utility does not function
> properly.  The version is:
> 
>     Z86) ls --version
>     ls (GNU fileutils) 4.0.36

Especially thanks for reporting the version number.  Note that while
the behavior you reported is unchanged you might want a newer version
of fileutils for other reasons.  Newer released versions are available
and even further development continues.

  ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/fileutils/fileutils-4.1.tar.gz

>  Accorinding the the manual,
> 
>    These options change the order in which `ls' sorts the information
>    it outputs.  By default, sorting is done by character code (e.g., ASCII
>    order).

The operative phrase is "by default" which is true.  But your report
matches a common pattern where the default has been specifically
overridden to be en_US.  Here is an almost canned reply about that.

Thanks for the report.  It matches a common pattern.  This is not due
to a bug, but to the fact that you have set environment variables that
direct the program to use locale specific sorting tables.  You or your
vendor have probably set environment variables like LANG, LC_ALL, or
LANG to en_US.  There appears to be a problem with that table which is
not part of the GNU program but part of your vendor's system release.

Unset them, and then set LC_ALL to POSIX

  # If you use bash or some other Bourne-based shell,
  export LC_ALL=POSIX

  # If you use a C-shell,
  setenv LC_ALL POSIX

and it will then work the way you expect.

See the standards documentation for more information on LC_*
variables.

  http://www.unix-systems.org/single_unix_specification_v2/xcu/ls.html

Bob