bug#80339: [9.10] tests/misc/usage_vs_refs fails with kill and uptime enabled

On 06/02/2026 05:45, Collin Funk wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Michael Daniels <[email protected]> writes:
> 
>> It looks like a doctest fails when providing `configure` the
>> `--enable-install-program=kill,uptime` flag (per NEWS for v9.10).
>>
>> ```
>>> ./configure --enable-install-program=kill,uptime
>> ...
>>> make -j
>> ...
>>> make -j check
>> ...
>> FAIL: tests/misc/usage_vs_refs
>> ==============================
>>
>> kill -s reference missing in texi
>> kill --signal reference missing in texi
>> kill -SIGNAL reference missing in texi
>> kill -l reference missing in texi
>> kill --list reference missing in texi
>> kill --table reference missing in texi
>> FAIL tests/misc/usage_vs_refs.sh (exit status: 1)
>> ...
>> ```
>>
>> This occurs on Debian and NixOS, both on x86_64 using WSL.
>> I haven't tested on any other platforms.
>>
>> I've attached test_suite.log (tarred and gzipped).
> 
> Thanks for the report.
> 
> I guess there is worse bugs to find out about right after a release. :)
> Most shells have a builtin 'kill' command, so these links will get less
> use.
> 
> The 'kill' documentation was formatted a bit differently than the other
> programs, most likely because it serves two different purposes; listing
> signals and actually killing programs.
> 
> I've attatched a patch after reorganizing it a bit so the anchors are
> created. I haven't pushed it yet Pádraig in case you want to make any
> changes and/or update the manual on gnu.org.

The patch looks good, though I'd merge in the attached
rather than special case -SIGNAL in the test.

I'll manually add anchors to the online manual for now.

Marking this bug as done.

thanks!
Padraig

From 2407463e942894cd37f21842d75eff812248dbcc Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: =?UTF-8?q?P=C3=A1draig=20Brady?= <[email protected]>
Date: Fri, 6 Feb 2026 11:42:01 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] doc: to merge

don't special case -SIGNAL in test
---
 doc/coreutils.texi          | 1 +
 tests/misc/usage_vs_refs.sh | 1 -
 2 files changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/doc/coreutils.texi b/doc/coreutils.texi
index 3f90eed06..455930746 100644
--- a/doc/coreutils.texi
+++ b/doc/coreutils.texi
@@ -18361,6 +18361,7 @@ The program accepts the following options.  Also see @ref{Common options}.
 
 @table @samp
 
+@optAnchor{kill,-SIGNAL}
 @optItem{kill,-s,}
 @optItemx{kill,--signal,}
 Specify the name or number of the signal to be sent.
diff --git a/tests/misc/usage_vs_refs.sh b/tests/misc/usage_vs_refs.sh
index 2d60184a4..6e5a43f21 100755
--- a/tests/misc/usage_vs_refs.sh
+++ b/tests/misc/usage_vs_refs.sh
@@ -24,7 +24,6 @@ longopts() { getopts $1 | cut -s -d'"' -f2; }
 
 getopts() {
   skip='--help|--version'              # These refs treated specially
-  skip="$skip|-SIGNAL"                 # This one comes after --signal
 
   env "$1" --help |
   grep -E '^(  -|      --)' |          # find options
-- 
2.52.0