Re: -i option of set missing in man bash

[Chet Ramey]

On 3/12/15 2:13 PM, Peng Yu wrote:
>>> The -i option obviously works with set. But it is missing in the man
>>> page. Should this be added?
>>
>> No.  It's really only there for completeness, so things like `set $-'
>> work as expected without error.
> 
> But if something is in the implementation, it should be also in the
> documentation, right?

There is a level of absurdity about this.  I can put a sentence in saying
that the -i, -c, and -s options are only effective at invocation and no-ops
when used with `set' -- if you've ever wondered how you get an 80-page man
`page', that's how -- but would that really have made a difference?  It's
only there for convenience, after all, and has no effect.

>> -i is described in the OPTIONS section of the man page, since invocation
>> is the only place using it makes sense.
> 
> Not necessarily. See my other example sent recently on the mailing
> list of trying to get COLUMNS.

With regards to COLUMNS, one doesn't need interactive mode to do that.
There are lots of ways to set COLUMNS to the screen width.  It's much more
productive to state your requirements clearly so people can suggest
solutions -- people here are more than happy to help -- than to complain
that the shell isn't satisfying your assumptions.

Chet
-- 
``The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.'' - Chaucer
                 ``Ars longa, vita brevis'' - Hippocrates
Chet Ramey, ITS, CWRU    chet@case.edu    http://cnswww.cns.cwru.edu/~chet/