URL:
<http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?49640>
Summary: Refer to numeric arguments as n|-n|+n or [-+]n
instead of n in the manpages
Project: findutils
Submitted by: fuujuhi
Submitted on: Fri 18 Nov 2016 06:39:15 AM GMT
Category: documentation
Severity: 3 - Normal
Item Group: None
Status: None
Privacy: Public
Assigned to: None
Originator Name:
Originator Email:
Open/Closed: Open
Discussion Lock: Any
Release: 4.6.0
Fixed Release: None
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Details:
Despites years of usage of find I still choke on the following subtlety of
find numerical arguments, that 'n' means 'exactly n', whereas '+n' means
'greater than n' and '-n' means 'less than n'.
This is clearly stated at the start of the TESTS section, but for someone that
would only cursorily read the manpage, like searching for 'mtime' directly,
you might easily miss this information.
I suggest then to edit the manpage such that all numerical arguments are
listed as n|-n|+n or [-+]n instead of simply n.
-amin n
File was last accessed n minutes ago.
would become
-amin n|-n|+n
File was last accessed n minutes ago.
or alternatively
-amin [-+]n
File was last accessed n minutes ago.
In case of extreme motivation, the text body could also be edited to replace
'n' by '(exactly/at least/at most) n' or something alike. But tmo changing the
argument specification is already enough.
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