Re: unexpand -t4 converts too much whitespace to tabs

[Charles Karney]

 > From: Jim Meyering <address@hidden>
 > Subject: Re: unexpand -t4 converts too much whitespace to tabs
 > Date: Sat, 19 Jul 2003 19:33:43 +0200
 > 
 > "Charles Karney" <address@hidden> wrote:
 > >
 > >   Interior white space is converted in this example
 > >     $ echo 'a   b'  | unexpand -t4    | tr '\t' X
 > >     aXb
 > 
 > That is according to the documentation -- at least the documentation
 > in the latest releases.
 > Here's part of the --help output from unexpand in coreutils-5.0.1,
 > this means it's in the automatically-generated man page, too:
 > 
 >   -t, --tabs=N     have tabs N characters apart instead of 8 (enables -a)

OK.  Somehow the documentation with my version (2.0.21) is out of sync
with the code.  -t implying -a is documented in the info file but not in
the man page or the --help output.  Also the option --first-only is
supported but undocumented.  Maybe this is a Linux-specific packaging
problem.  So I need

   $ echo 'a   b'  | unexpand -t4  --first-only | tr '\t' X

A minor suggestion: I recommend keeping the options for expand and
unexpand parallel to one another where sensible.  I.e., --first-only
should be renamed --initial or -i.  (And that's what I tried yesterday
in the faced of this apparent bug!).

Thanks for your help.

-- 
Charles Karney                  Email:  address@hidden
Sarnoff Corporation             Phone:  +1 609 734 2312
Princeton, NJ 08543-5300        Fax:    +1 609 734 2323