Date: 30 Jan 2003 20:51:17 -0800 From: "Gary W. Swearingen" <swear@attbi.com> To: FreeBSD-gnats-submit@FreeBSD.org Subject: docs/47705: wc(1) manpage has poor explanations. Message-ID: <lhn0lhj516.0lh@localhost.localdomain>
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>Number: 47705 >Category: docs >Synopsis: wc(1) manpage has poor explanations. >Confidential: no >Severity: non-critical >Priority: low >Responsible: freebsd-doc >State: open >Quarter: >Keywords: >Date-Required: >Class: doc-bug >Submitter-Id: current-users >Arrival-Date: Thu Jan 30 21:00:24 PST 2003 >Closed-Date: >Last-Modified: >Originator: Gary W. Swearingen >Release: FreeBSD 4.7-STABLE i386 >Organization: none >Environment: n/a ================ >Description: 1) The wc(1) manpage has poor explanations, particularly the definitions of lines and words. 2) The manpage doesn't explain that only the latter of -c & -m is used. 3) The first paragraph is too big and unorganized. (Better to give general description, then explanations of lines, words, chararacters.) 4) The manpage refers users to a programmer's manpage. (Better to just say what the command does, since it's not hard. A second reference to the programmer's manpage can be left in the COMPATIBILITY section and there's no longer any need for a "See Also" section.) 5) There are several other minor problems. (See patch.) ================ >How-To-Repeat: n/a ================ >Fix: Patch this: .\" $FreeBSD: src/usr.bin/wc/wc.1,v 1.6.2.4 2002/08/25 02:47:04 tjr Exp $ with this: --- /pr/work/wc..orig.1 Thu Jan 30 18:40:13 2003 +++ /pr/work/wc.1 Thu Jan 30 20:28:54 2003 @@ -48,35 +48,47 @@ .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Nm -utility displays the number of lines, words, and bytes contained in each +utility displays the number of lines, words, +bytes (or characters), and filename of each input .Ar file -(or standard input, by default) to the standard output. -A line is defined as a string of characters delimited by a <newline> -character, -and a word is defined as a string of characters delimited by white space -characters. -White space characters are the set of characters for which the -.Xr isspace 3 -function returns true. -If more than one input file is specified, a line of cumulative counts -for all the files is displayed on a separate line after the output for -the last file. +to the standard output (on separate lines), except that if +.Ar file +is not specified, +then standard input is counted and there is no filename output. +If more than one input file is specified, +a line of cumulative counts for all the files is displayed +on a separate line after the output for the last file. +.Pp +A line is defined as a <newline> character. +Beware that characters following the last <newline> +are not included in the line count. +A word is defined as a string of non-whitespace characters +separated by whitespace characters. +Whitespace characters are <space>, <horizontal-tab>, <carriage-return>, +<newline>, <vertical-tab>, and <newpage>. +A character is normally one byte but might be multiple bytes, +depending upon the environment. +(See the ENVIRONMENT section.) .Pp The following options are available: .Bl -tag -width Ds .It Fl c The number of bytes in each input file is written to the standard output. +This cancels any prior +.Fl w . .It Fl l The number of lines in each input file is written to the standard output. .It Fl m The number of characters in each input file is written to the standard output. -If the current locale does not support multibyte characters, this +If the environment does not support multi-byte characters, this is equivalent to the .Fl c option. +This cancels any prior +.Fl c . .It Fl w The number of words in each input file is written to the standard output. @@ -85,15 +97,13 @@ When an option is specified, .Nm only reports the information requested by that option. +The order of output is always: line, word, byte/character, filename. The default action is equivalent to specifying the .Fl c , .Fl l and .Fl w options. -.Pp -If no files are specified, the standard input is used and no -file name is displayed. .Sh ENVIRONMENT The .Ev LANG , @@ -104,18 +114,18 @@ .Nm as described in .Xr environ 7 . +For more information, +see the FreeBSD Handbook's discussion of locale setting. .Sh EXAMPLES -Count the number of characters, words and lines in each of the files +Count the number of lines, words, and characters in each of the files .Pa report1 and .Pa report2 as well as the totals for both: .Pp -.Dl "wc -mlw report1 report2" +.Dl "wc -lwm report1 report2" .Sh DIAGNOSTICS .Ex -std -.Sh SEE ALSO -.Xr isspace 3 .Sh COMPATIBILITY Historically, the .Nm >Release-Note: >Audit-Trail: >Unformatted: To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-doc" in the body of the message
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