Re: Contradiction in man page for cut(1) ??

[David Laight <david%l8s.co.uk@localhost>]

On Sat, Mar 01, 2014 at 08:41:43PM -0800, Paul Goyette wrote:
> Currently, the man page for cut(1) says
> 
>       list is a comma or whitespace separated set of increasing
>       numbers and/or number ranges.  <cut>  Numbers and number ranges
>       may be repeated, overlapping, and in any order.
> 
> If the numbers (and ranges) can appear "in any order," how can there be 
> a requirement that they be "increasing"?
> 
> :)

The stupidity of 'cut' is that it won't reorder columns.
So that might be what the text is trying to say.

> Interestingly, there seems to be no requirement that the second number 
> in a range is at least as large as the first number.  Is the range x-y 
> functionally equivalent to y-x ?

Try it 'cut -f 3-1' gives lots of blank lines ...

        David

-- 
David Laight: david%l8s.co.uk@localhost