Re: bin/57252: wc

[RVP <rvp%SDF.ORG@localhost>]

The following reply was made to PR bin/57252; it has been noted by GNATS.

From: RVP <rvp%SDF.ORG@localhost>
To: gnats-bugs%netbsd.org@localhost
Cc: 
Subject: Re: bin/57252: wc
Date: Thu, 2 Mar 2023 11:03:24 +0000 (UTC)

 On Thu, 2 Mar 2023, Marc Daniel Fege wrote:
 
 > 	cat /etc/hosts | wc -w
 >
 > produces a more clean output what I mean. I just saw after I checked the=20
 > output with an editor that there are just plain space characters and no tab=
 > s=20
 > and also adds unneccessary empty spaces in advance of that output. Kind of=
 > =20
 > odd.
 >
 
 Well, those extra spaces are annoying, but, you can get rid of them
 pretty easily like this:
 
 $ x=$(x=$(wc -l < /etc/motd); echo $x)
 $ echo "$x"
 8
 $
 
 And, SUSv4 2018 actually recommends a single space instead of tabs:
 
 ```
      STDOUT
 
       By default, the standard output shall contain an entry for each
       input file of the form:
 "%d %d %d %s\n", <newlines>, <words>, <bytes>, <file>
 ```
 
 And,
 
 ```
      RATIONALE
 
       The output file format pseudo- printf() string differs from the
       System V version of wc:
 "%7d%7d%7d %s\n"
 
       which produces possibly ambiguous and unparsable results for very
       large files, as it assumes no number shall exceed six digits.
 ```
 
 -RVP