Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site varian.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!genrad!decvax!mcnc!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!umcp-cs!gymble!lll-crg!dual!qantel!vlsvax1!zehntel!varian!david
From: david@varian.UUCP (David Brown)
Newsgroups: net.bugs.4bsd
Subject: col -x or col -h?
Message-ID: <326@varian.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 13-Jun-85 14:19:16 EDT
Article-I.D.: varian.326
Posted: Thu Jun 13 14:19:16 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 20-Jun-85 10:55:32 EDT
Distribution: net
Organization: Varian, Walnut Creek, CA
Lines: 20

In all documentation I've seen for the col command (v7, sIII, sV, 4.1bsd,
4.2bsd, 2.9bsd), it is stated that:

    Col normally converts white space to tabs to shorten printing time.
    If the -x option is given, this conversion is suppressed.

However, in 4.1bsd (and 4.2bsd I believe), Berkeley removed the -x flag
and created a new flag -h which has the opposite meaning: col will 
convert white space to tabs only if the -h flag is given. Apparently they
never documented this change.

On my system, I have changed the flags back to the way they are documented,
as I don't want to change all the documentation, and I want any scripts
that I write to be portable to non-Berkeley systems.   Has anyone else
noticed this?

-- 
	David Brown	 (415) 945-2199
	Varian Instruments 2700 Mitchell Dr.  Walnut Creek, Ca. 94598
	{zehntel,dual,amd,fortune,resonex,rtech}!varian!david