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Subject:	Re: ls -C broken
To:	L A Walsh <cygwin AT tlinx DOT org>, Thomas Wolff <towo AT towo DOT net>
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Date:	Thu, 3 Feb 2022 01:59:56 -0800
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That would be rude on the part of GNU, that's for sure.

Below, though, I don't see the use of -C explicitly.  ls defaults to -C if 
output is to a terminal, and to -1 if not, as it has done for many years.

I see a lot of red herrings in the explanations below as regarding column, 
tabs, expand, and numfmt.  I don't think any of them come into play

Which version of 'ls' is pulling this nonsense?

On 2/2/22 6:51 PM, L A Walsh wrote:

> On 2022/01/28 07:46, Thomas Wolff wrote:
>> If I redirect output of `ls -C` (file / pipe), it used to produce
>> well-formatted output in columns.
>> Suddenly it produces garbage formatting instead. As `ls` itself is not
>> new, maybe it's some library that breaks behaviour?
>> Or even pty code?? Works on Cygwin 32-bit. Any idea?
>> Thomas
>>    
> ---
> The authors of Gnu ls changed 'ls' defaults because "they can".
> Old ls -C:
> /bin/ls /proc

Where is the -C?

> 331  379  913       filesystems  mounts      registry32  swaps    version
> 332  500  cpuinfo   loadavg      net         registry64  sys
> 335  731  cygdrive  meminfo      partitions  self        sysvipc
> new ls -C:
> /bin/ls /proc|cat

Where is the -C?

> 331
> 332
> 335
> 370
> 379
> 500
> 731
> 732
> 945
> 946
> cpuinfo
> cygdrive
> devices
> filesystems
> loadavg
> meminfo
> misc
> mounts
> net
> partitions
> registry
> registry32
> registry64
> self
> stat
> swaps
> sys
> sysvipc
> uptime
> version
> ---
> with column:
> law.Bliss> /bin/ls /proc|column (tabs mismatch)
> 331   731   devices   net   stat
> 332   732   filesystems partitions  swaps
> 335   952   loadavg   registry  sys
> 370   953   meminfo   registry32  sysvipc
> 379   cpuinfo   misc    registry64  uptime
> 500   cygdrive  mounts    self    version
> with column+expand -8:
> s> /bin/ls /proc|column|expand -8
> 1021            379             devices         net             stat
> 1022            500             filesystems     partitions      swaps
> 331             731             loadavg         registry        sys
> 332             732             meminfo         registry32      sysvipc
> 335             cpuinfo         misc            registry64      uptime
> 370             cygdrive        mounts          self            version
> ---
> several other tools no longer have settings to expand tabs to user-values
> requiring the use of expand.
> Formats of numeric output were also changed, requiring usage of 'numfmt'
> This was all done to benefit script consistency at the expense of
> users usability. It is expected that users can adapt to the computers.
> by default, 'ls' will produce different output when it goes to the
> screen vs. when
> it goes to a pipe.  When 'ls' goes to a pipe it is required to only use
> 1 column.

Not strictly "required" but has done since forever.

> To get the behavior you want, try piping through 'column' first (see
> 'man (1) column).
>
> They made many changes in core-utils to make automated shell scripts more
> consistent at the expense of user-usability where they now suggest using
> pipes into other utilities to get previous output

GNU is getting too big for their britches.  This is completely out of line.

> Try using ls|column.  Of course ls also used to expand tabs to every 8
> characters
> and it no longer does that.  So you must use another util 'tabs' to set
> tabs to every 8th column (ls's standard tab setting)
>

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