Clarify what "cat" documentation means by "blank" lines.

* doc/coreutils.texi (cat invocation): "Blank" lines actually mean
empty lines.
* src/cat.c (usage): Say that "nonblank" means nonempty.  Clarify
--squeeze-blank.

diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 92a8408..dc0d246 100644 (file)
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,11 @@
+2007-06-14  Paul Eggert  <eggert@cs.ucla.edu>
+
+       Clarify what "cat" documentation means by "blank" lines.
+       * doc/coreutils.texi (cat invocation): "Blank" lines actually mean
+       empty lines.
+       * src/cat.c (usage): Say that "nonblank" means nonempty.  Clarify
+       --squeeze-blank.
+
 2007-06-13  Jim Meyering  <jim@meyering.net>
 
        rmdir: give better diagnostics

diff --git a/doc/coreutils.texi b/doc/coreutils.texi
index 4ba2fb9..4fdee3e 100644 (file)
--- a/doc/coreutils.texi
+++ b/doc/coreutils.texi
@@ -1308,7 +1308,7 @@ Equivalent to @option{-vET}.
 @itemx --number-nonblank
 @opindex -b
 @opindex --number-nonblank
-Number all nonblank output lines, starting with 1.
+Number all nonempty output lines, starting with 1.
 
 @item -e
 @opindex -e
@@ -1330,8 +1330,9 @@ Number all output lines, starting with 1.
 @itemx --squeeze-blank
 @opindex -s
 @opindex --squeeze-blank
-@cindex squeezing blank lines
-Replace multiple adjacent blank lines with a single blank line.
+@cindex squeezing empty lines
+Suppress repeated adjacent empty lines; output just one empty line
+instead of several.
 
 @item -t
 @opindex -t

diff --git a/src/cat.c b/src/cat.c
index e100a14..a9580e8 100644 (file)
--- a/src/cat.c
+++ b/src/cat.c
@@ -100,11 +100,11 @@ Usage: %s [OPTION] [FILE]...\n\
 Concatenate FILE(s), or standard input, to standard output.\n\
 \n\
   -A, --show-all           equivalent to -vET\n\
-  -b, --number-nonblank    number nonblank output lines\n\
+  -b, --number-nonblank    number nonempty output lines\n\
   -e                       equivalent to -vE\n\
   -E, --show-ends          display $ at end of each line\n\
   -n, --number             number all output lines\n\
-  -s, --squeeze-blank      never more than one single blank line\n\
+  -s, --squeeze-blank      suppress repeated empty output lines\n\
 "), stdout);
       fputs (_("\
   -t                       equivalent to -vT\n\