[bug #57025] find -mtime will ignore large files

[Patrick M.]

Follow-up Comment #14, bug #57025 (project findutils):

The problem is locality of information.

Indeed, that's nice for the -size option. But what's the point to add a
comment specifically for that option, and not for say -mtime?

The current state of the man page seems to be in a mid-state regarding these
numeric arguments. For some options, we repeat carefully that you can use
+n/-n/n, for other options, we rely on the factorized text at the top of the
section, and only say that it is "less than, more that, or exactly", which if
you are a bit too formal, could conclude that it just match everything. At the
very least, it generates confusion.

Changing the option format from

  -atime n

to

  -atime -n|+n|n

as *you* proposed in comment #7 would remove all ambiguities, and would make
very obvious how the options work without even the need to read anything
(mostly).

Another option is to add in the text for each option something like "(see
NUMERIC ARGUMENT)", and make a dedicated section.

Another option, which I don't like, would be to group all the numeric options
in a same section, and hope people will see the text at the top because the
section would be small.

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