suggested addition to 'date'

[Oliver Fromme]

Julian Elischer wrote:
 > Oliver Fromme wrote:
 > > John Baldwin wrote:
 > > > Oliver Fromme wrote:
 > > > > There's another possibility, which doesn't require a new
 > > > > option letter at all.  You could add a new escape sequence
 > > > > to the format string, e.g. "%*".  Whenever date(1) is
 > > > > called with a format string containing that sequence, it
 > > > > goes into filter mode and replaces the sequence with the
 > > > > current line.  That would also enable you to be more
 > > > > flexible with the placement of the timestamps.
 > > > > For example:
 > > > > 
 > > > > $ printf 'foo\nbar\nbaz\n' | date +'%H:%M:%S %*'
 > > > > 16:39:58 foo
 > > > > 16:39:58 bar
 > > > > 16:39:58 baz
 > > > 
 > > > I prefer this of all the suggestions so far.
 > > 
 > > It's not very difficult, so I created a patch which does
 > > exactly that (includes an addition for the manpage, too).
 > > I've submitted it as bin/102609:
 > > 
 > > http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=102609
 > 
 > A couple of comments:
 > 
 > you don't need to run strftime for each line if the time hasn't changed.
 > (My original patch checks this)

Good idea.  I'll update the patch.

 > What is the effective maximum line length for a single fgetln?

It's unlimited.  fgetln() allocates sufficient amount of
memory dynamically, that's why I used it instead of fgets().
It avoids reinventing the wheel.

Best regards
   Oliver

-- 
Oliver Fromme,  secnetix GmbH & Co. KG, Marktplatz 29, 85567 Grafing
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