Hello Jamie Heilman,
* Jamie Heilman <ja...@audible.transient.net> [201031 09:33]:
> look's behavior became really unpredictable when it migrated from
> bsdmainutils to util-linux.
Thank you for your report.
> $ look achi
[6 results]
> $ grep -ci ^achi /usr/share/dict/words
> 36
For one, you seem to be using a different words file than me:
$ grep -ci '^achi' /usr/share/dict/words
16
Anyway, util-linux's look uses a binary search and has requirements
on the input file. This is documented in the manpage look(1):
| As look performs a binary search, the lines in file must be
| sorted (where sort(1) was given the same options -d and/or -f
| that look is invoked with)
/usr/share/dict/words (in my case /usr/share/dict/american-english)
does not follow these requirements.
If you read the old look(1) manpage, it says under COMPATIBILITY:
| look uses a linear search by default instead of a binary search,
| which is what most other implementations use by default.
Now we are back at "what most other implementations use", so one
less compatibility issue.
If you would like to see improvements over this, please talk to
upstream about it. Their contacts are:
E-MAIL: util-li...@vger.kernel.org
Web: https://github.com/karelzak/util-linux/issues
Best wishes,
Chris
