GNU bug report logs - #47702
wc man page: first you are talking about bytes, then you are talking about characters

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: 積丹尼 Dan Jacobson <jidanni <at> jidanni.org>
To: bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org
Subject: wc man page: first you are talking about bytes, then you are
 talking about characters
Date: Sun, 11 Apr 2021 09:42:57 +0800

Man wc says

       Print newline, word, and byte counts for each FILE, and a total line if
       more than one FILE is specified.  A word is a non-zero-length  sequence
       of characters delimited by white space.

first you are talking about bytes, then you are talking about
characters.

So for the latter, please say
characters (not bytes)
or
characters (same as bytes)
or just
bytes
Yes, even if explained in the INFO file.
Thanks.

Message #10 received at 47702-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Pádraig Brady <P <at> draigBrady.com>
To: 積丹尼 Dan Jacobson <jidanni <at> jidanni.org>,
 47702-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#47702: wc man page: first you are talking about bytes, then
 you are talking about characters
Date: Sun, 11 Apr 2021 16:50:35 +0100

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

On 11/04/2021 02:42, 積丹尼 Dan Jacobson wrote:
> Man wc says
> 
>         Print newline, word, and byte counts for each FILE, and a total line if
>         more than one FILE is specified.  A word is a non-zero-length  sequence
>         of characters delimited by white space.
> 
> first you are talking about bytes, then you are talking about
> characters.
> 
> So for the latter, please say
> characters (not bytes)
> or
> characters (same as bytes)
> or just
> bytes
> Yes, even if explained in the INFO file.

You're right that this is under-specified,
in both the man page and the info file.
The above is really characters (not bytes).
In fact as a GNU extension it's printable characters.
POSIX does not specify this, but one can confirm like:


$ printf '\xc3 \xc3' | LC_ALL=C wc --word --character --byte
      0       3       3
$ printf '\xc3 \xc3' | LC_ALL=C.utf8 wc --word --character --byte
      0       1       3

The info file was really quite under-specified in this regard.
I'll apply the attached to clarify things.
Marking this as done.

thanks!
Pádraig

[wc-clarify-counts.patch (text/x-patch, attachment)]

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