Add to manual page how to achieve old behavior, just in case someone relies on buggy behavior of the command. Reported-by: Pádraig Brady Signed-off-by: Sami Kerola --- text-utils/column.1 | 29 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 29 insertions(+) diff --git a/text-utils/column.1 b/text-utils/column.1 index 2050666..775c73b 100644 --- a/text-utils/column.1 +++ b/text-utils/column.1 @@ -65,6 +65,35 @@ the screen if no other information is available. .nf sed 's/#.*//' /etc/fstab | column -t .nf +.SH BUGS +The util-linux version 2.23 changed +.B \-s +option to be non-greedy. The change made the following output +.PP +.EX +$ printf "a:b:c\n1::3\n" | column -t -s ':' +a b c +1 3 +.EE +.PP +to be +.PP +.EX +$ printf "a:b:c\n1::3\n" | column -t -s ':' +a b c +1 3 +.EE +.PP +If there is need to use greedy separator the old behavior can be achieved +by filtering with +.BR sed (1). +.PP +.EX +$ printf "xzcatxzdog\\ndonkeyxzzxkong\\n" | +> sed 's/^[xz]*// +> s/[xz]\\+/x/g' | +> column -t -s xz +.EE .SH "SEE ALSO" .BR colrm (1), .BR ls (1), -- 1.7.12.1