bug#81311: headers for comm, wc

Dan Jacobson <[email protected]> writes:

> I'm saying
> $ comm --add-header a b
> should add a first line:
> Only in a Only in b In both
>
> Well it looks rather ugly, so maybe
>
> Only in a
>          Only in b
>                    In both
>
> Anyways, the idea is we are making a table,
> and tables need a header to make sense.
>
> Sure, we can make our own header, but there should be a basic header
> available too.

Sorry, but I do not see much benefit to this feature.

It would be harmful to the common case of 'comm' being piped into
another program. It would also be confusing in some cases, e.g., the
following example:

    $ for c in a b; do echo "Only in $c" > $c; done
    $ comm a b
    Only in a
            Only in b

> Hmm, same problem with the wc(1) command.

Some people dislike extra text in 'wc' [1]. Sadly, we can not make
everyone happy.

Collin

[1] https://bugs.gnu.org/70860