Re: ls sorting behavior changed in fileutils-4.1

[Keith Thompson]

[...]
> FYI, setting LC_ALL to "C" is overkill.
> You can get the desired effect by setting LC_COLLATE instead.
> 
> I've made this change to the documentation:
> 
> @@ -4540,7 +4540,13 @@
>  non-option argument is specified, @code{ls} operates on the current
>  directory, acting as if it had been invoked with a single argument of 
> @samp{.}.
>  
> -By default, the output is sorted alphabetically.  If standard output is
> address@hidden LC_COLLATE
> +By default, the output is sorted alphabetically, according to the locale
> +settings in effect. @footnote{If you have arranged to use a address@hidden
> +locale (e.g., by setting @env{LC_ALL} to @samp{en_US}), then @code{ls} may
> +produce output that is sorted differently than you're accustomed to.
> +In that case, set the @env{LC_COLLATE} environment variable to @samp{C}.}
> +If standard output is
>  a terminal, the output is in columns (sorted vertically) and control
>  characters are output as question marks; otherwise, the output is listed
>  one per line and control characters are output as-is.

One more suggestion: the phrase "If you have arranged to use a
non-posix locale" is potentially misleading.  In Red Hat 7.0 and 7.1,
the locale variables are set to "en_US" by default.

Between Red Hat 6.2 and 7.0, the default locale changed from POSIX"
to "en_US".  Between Red Hat 7.0 and 7.1, the provide version of the
fileutils changed from 4.0x to 4.0.36, and ls started paying attention
to the locale.  The unfortunate result of this is a fairly drastic
change in visible behavior with no action by the user.

-- 
Keith Thompson, San Diego Supercomputer Center  address@hidden
<http://www.sdsc.edu/~kst/>  Office: 858-822-0853  Fax: 858-534-5077
Cxiuj via bazo apartenas ni.