uniq -c formatting

Eric Spakman E.Spakman at inter.nl.net
Tue Jul 18 12:20:35 UTC 2006


Hi Robert,

>>> leading whitespace should generally be regarded as entirely optional.
>>> if a script breaks because that leading whitespace isn't there
>>> anymore, i would suggest that it's the *script* that's broken.
>>>
>> It's not that the script is breaking, but the formatting of its
>> output. Anyway, it was more a question of why the output of uniq changed,
>> if it was intentional or simply overlooked.
>
> ok, so my language was a bit strong.  in any event, i think it's still
> inappropriate for any program to depend on the *precise* output format of
> any other program.  generally, all you can count on is
> whitespace-separated output fields.  if you start depending on anything
> more explicit than that, you're always asking for trouble.
>
Agree with that.

> which, of course, doesn't answer your question.  :-)
>
It doesn't, but thanks for your comments ;-)

> rday
>
Eric




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