Re: [PATCH v3 5/6] man2/chmod.2: add C digit separators to clarify POSIX feature release dates and long numeric digit strings

["Tom Schwindl" <schwindl@posteo.de>]

Hi Branden,

On Sat Feb 18, 2023 at 7:08 PM CET, G. Branden Robinson wrote:
> Hi Tom,
>
> At 2023-02-18T17:42:05+0000, Tom Schwindl wrote:
> > > > diff --git a/man2/chmod.2 b/man2/chmod.2
> > > > index 8b5db74ed7e3..674b54368314 100644
> > > > --- a/man2/chmod.2
> > > > +++ b/man2/chmod.2
> > > > @@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see
> > > >  .nf
> > > >  .BR fchmod ():
> > > >      Since glibc 2.24:
> > > > -        _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 199309L
> > > > +        _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 1993\[aq]09L
> [...]
> > As long as I'm not completely lost, those values are often passed on
> > the command line via `-D`. Wouldn't a random \[aq] interfere with
> > shell quoting and result in hard to find bugs and unexpected bahavior?
> > So is it really a good idea to present those values in such a way in
> > the manpage? Or am I simply underestimating the intelligence of the
> > readers? :-)
>
> Do you expect C programmers to be more likely to copy and paste from the
> man page source document or from the rendered page (probably in a
> terminal window, but possibly from a PDF)?
>

I expect them to copy & paste from the rendered page but I thought writing out
"'" is a bit cumbersome so I refer to it as \[aq]. My "worry" with this was
that new programmers could potentially execute a command like the following:

  $ cc -D_POSIX_C_SOURCE=1993'09L test.c

and wonder what they did wrong.
But thinking about it a bit longer, copy & pasting from the rendered manpage
might be the bigger issue. Or not, depending on the answer you'll give me :)

-- 
Best Regards,
Tom Schwindl

> The answer to the questions you posed depends on your answer to mine.
>
> Regards,
> Branden