Debian Bug report logs - #111143
findutils: manpage has misleading description of -print0 option

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Message #5 received at submit@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Zack Weinberg <zack@codesourcery.com>

To: submit@bugs.debian.org

Subject: findutils: manpage has misleading description of -print0 option

Date: Mon, 03 Sep 2001 18:35:30 -0700

Package: findutils
Version: 4.1.7-2
Severity: normal

The find(1) manpage says

       -print0
              True; print the full file name on the standard out-
              put, followed by a  null  character.   This  allows
              file  names  that  contain newlines to be correctly
              interpreted by programs that process the find  out-
              put.

This can mislead people into thinking that other varieties of whitespace,
shell special characters, etc. do not cause problems.  I would suggest
that the word "newlines" be replaced by "whitespace or other special
characters."

It might also be a good idea to mention that most programs need a special
switch to handle -print0 mode, such as xargs -0.

-- System Information
Debian Release: testing/unstable
Kernel Version: Linux taltos 2.2.20-pre3-pipefix #1 Wed Aug 1 14:05:04 PDT 2001 i686 unknown

Versions of the packages findutils depends on:
ii  libc6          2.2.4-1        GNU C Library: Shared libraries and Timezone

Message #10 received at 111143-submitter@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Andreas Metzler <ametzler@downhill.at.eu.org>

To: 111143-submitter@bugs.debian.org

Cc: control@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#111143: findutils: manpage has misleading description of -print0 option

Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2003 16:25:03 +0200

forwarded 111143 bug-findutils@gnu.org
thank
On Mon, Sep 03, 2001 at 06:35:30PM -0700, Zack Weinberg wrote:
> The find(1) manpage says
> 
>        -print0
>               True; print the full file name on the standard out-
>               put, followed by a  null  character.   This  allows
>               file  names  that  contain newlines to be correctly
>               interpreted by programs that process the find  out-
>               put.
> 
> This can mislead people into thinking that other varieties of whitespace,
> shell special characters, etc. do not cause problems.  I would suggest
> that the word "newlines" be replaced by "whitespace or other special
> characters."

I've forwarded this to upstream's BTS at
http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?func=detailbug&bug_id=4345&group_id=61

> It might also be a good idea to mention that most programs need a special
> switch to handle -print0 mode, such as xargs -0.

Somehow I think that is too verbose (for a short-reference manpage), I
imho the idea to feed a program null-separated strings and think that it
would automagically split them is farfetched.
         cu andreas

Message #13 received at 111143-submitter@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Andreas Metzler <ametzler@downhill.at.eu.org>

To: 111143-submitter@bugs.debian.org

Subject: [nobody@savannah.gnu.org: [bug #4345] find: improvement for manpage description of -print0]

Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2003 11:33:45 +0200

Hello,
Your bug has been fixed upstream
             cu andreas

----- Forwarded message from nobody@savannah.gnu.org -----
=================== BUG #4345: LATEST MODIFICATIONS ==================
http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?func=detailbug&bug_id=4345&group_id=61

Changes by: James Youngman <jay@gnu.org>
Date: Sat 08/02/2003 at 12:02 (GMT)

            What     | Removed                   | Added
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
          Resolution | None                      | Fixed
              Status | Open                      | Closed


------------------ Additional Follow-up Comments ----------------------------
I have updated the find and xargs manual pages to discuss the issues arund -print, -print0 and -0 in more detail.   This change will be included in the next release. 
[...]

For detailed info, follow this link:
http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?func=detailbug&bug_id=4345&group_id=61

_______________________________________________
  Message sent via/by Savannah
  http://savannah.gnu.org/


----- End forwarded message -----

Message #16 received at 111143-submitter@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: James Youngman <jay@gnu.org>

To: 111143-submitter@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Fixed in upstream CVS code

Date: Sat, 3 Jan 2004 21:02:25 +0000

This is now fixed in the upstream code.

-- 
James Youngman.
CSSC Bug reporting page:       http://sf.net/tracker/?group_id=8064&atid=108064
GNU Findutils bug reporting page: http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?group=findutils

Message #29 received at 111143-close@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Andreas Metzler <ametzler@debian.org>

To: 111143-close@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Bug#111143: fixed in findutils 4.2.20-2

Date: Thu, 09 Jun 2005 14:32:18 -0400

Source: findutils
Source-Version: 4.2.20-2

We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest version of
findutils, which is due to be installed in the Debian FTP archive:

findutils_4.2.20-2.diff.gz
  to pool/main/f/findutils/findutils_4.2.20-2.diff.gz
findutils_4.2.20-2.dsc
  to pool/main/f/findutils/findutils_4.2.20-2.dsc
findutils_4.2.20-2_i386.deb
  to pool/main/f/findutils/findutils_4.2.20-2_i386.deb



A summary of the changes between this version and the previous one is
attached.

Thank you for reporting the bug, which will now be closed.  If you
have further comments please address them to 111143@bugs.debian.org,
and the maintainer will reopen the bug report if appropriate.

Debian distribution maintenance software
pp.
Andreas Metzler <ametzler@debian.org> (supplier of updated findutils package)

(This message was generated automatically at their request; if you
believe that there is a problem with it please contact the archive
administrators by mailing ftpmaster@debian.org)


-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Format: 1.7
Date: Thu,  9 Jun 2005 20:07:37 +0200
Source: findutils
Binary: findutils
Architecture: source i386
Version: 4.2.20-2
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: low
Maintainer: Andreas Metzler <ametzler@debian.org>
Changed-By: Andreas Metzler <ametzler@debian.org>
Description: 
 findutils  - utilities for finding files--find, xargs, and locate
Closes: 5956 31858 67782 102914 111143 111578 159221 162838 169730 175372 176201 185202 185203 192330 202512 219855 244766 246040 254676 256367 260780 261598 262476 286977 295399 300323 300429 300631
Changes: 
 findutils (4.2.20-2) unstable; urgency=low
 .
   * Upload to unstable.
 .
 findutils (4.2.20-1) experimental; urgency=low
 .
   * [locate] Do not index cifs (Closes: #295399) lustre (Closes: #300323) and
     nfs4 (Closes: #300631) filesystems by default.
   * [locate] Ignore /media by default. (Closes: #300429)
   * New upstream version 4.2.20
     - includes up-to-date Italian translation. (Closes: #286977)
 .
 findutils (4.2.14-1) experimental; urgency=low
 .
   * New upstream version
     - includes patch to fix savannah #11495.
     - locate: New options  -L, --follow|-P, -H, --nofollow for ignoring
       dangling symlinks (or not). (Closes: #159221)
     - find supports -exec ... {} +.
     - locate support for FreeBSD options (Sclms, m and s are ignored, but
       undocumented, I've already opened upstream report #11730 on that.)
       (Closes: #102914)
     - find built with --enable-d_type-optimisation, for using
       readdir/getdents. (Closes: #202512)
 .
 findutils (4.2.11-2) experimental; urgency=low
 .
   * find -printf '%n' (hard link count) was broken (savannah #11495).
 .
 findutils (4.2.11-1) experimental; urgency=low
 .
   * New upstream version.
 .
 findutils (4.2.10.CVS20041219-1) experimental; urgency=low
 .
   * New upstream, CVS from CVS20041219 (pre- 4.2.11).
     * -printf '%P' works correctly again.
   * Run testsuite.
 .
 findutils (4.2.9-1) experimental; urgency=low
 .
   * New upstream source
 .
 findutils (4.2.8-1) experimental; urgency=low
 .
   * New upstream version
     - New option --arg-file=file and extended documentation about
       stdin-handling (short in manpage, more extensive in info).
       (Closes: #5956)
     - improved behavior on automounted directories.
 .
 findutils (4.2.5-1) experimental; urgency=low
 .
   * New upstream version
     - includes 25_destdir_localstatedir.dpatch, our last remaining patch, we
       are vanilla now.
   * Add minimal debian/README.source.
   * Chuan-kai Lin <cklin@debian.org> has offered to serve as backup
     maintainer. Thanks. Add him to Uploaders.
 .
 findutils (4.2.4-1) experimental; urgency=low
 .
   * New upstream version
     - Closes: #175372: findutils: man pages have L's on references
     - includes 10_updatedb-findopts patch.
     - does not print warning about listing options after non-options unless
       connected to a tty.
     - xargs now uses 128Kb instead of 20Kb of command line by default, as
       ARG_MAX is 131072 on linux this Closes: #261598.
 .
 findutils (4.2.3.CVS20041106-1) experimental; urgency=low
 .
   * New upstream version (pre-4.2.4, CVS 2004-11-06).
     - Closes: #176201: findutils: xargs enviroment size limited to 20k
     - Closes: #254676: xargs: environment is too large for exec
     - Closes: #219855: -printf: accepts C octal escapes, contrary to the
       documentation.
     - Closes: #246040: findutils: find -printf %H segfaults
     - Closes: #185202: findutils: extra ")" not caught
     - Closes: #185203: findutils: overflow causes -mtime to succeed
     - Closes: #244766: /usr/bin/locate: locate should have equivalent of
       -print0 option
     - documents type of supported regular expressions for -regex
       (Closes: #162838)
     - Closes: #256367: Deprecated usage of trap in locate/updatedb.sh
     - includes some examples in find.1 manpage. (Closes: #111578)
     - new option -ignore_readdir_race to selectively suppress the obnoxious
       race-condition caused errormessages. (Closes: #67782)
     - -print0/-0 issues explained in more detail. (Closes: #111143)
     - includes supplied patch for GNU/FreeBSD. (Closes: #192330)
     - updatedb invokes "cd /" before running commands as unprivileged user.
       (Closes: #262476)
     - 'xargs -n 1 -i' works. (Closes: #31858). Please note that it is no bug
       that -i changes xargs to pass a whole line of input as a single argument
       instead of splitting on any blank characters as without -i. - Other
       implementations behave the same and the -I XSI extension documented in
       SUSv3/POSIX works like this, too.
 .
    * Removed unnecessary patches: 10_missing_includes 20_missing_newlines
      30_locate_nologinsh 35_updatedb-location 36_savannah-8623 40_direntry
      50_install_info
   * Add shfs to PRUNFS (Closes: #260780)
   * New patch: 10_updatedb-findopts: Add --findoptions option to updatedb to
     pass global options to find.
   * Set FINDOPTIONS='-ignore_readdir_race' for updatedb.sh's cron-job.
     (Closes: #169730)
   * standards-version 3.6.1 (no changes required).
Files: 
 d8131ceadf2d1c15b52622c533021e9f 663 base required findutils_4.2.20-2.dsc
 3be936480966e5d4c165047efe0f0b4b 12033 base required findutils_4.2.20-2.diff.gz
 652a8b1a819cacd6fff1cc0033a11032 306194 base required findutils_4.2.20-2_i386.deb

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