doc: suggest a few more workarounds

* doc/autoconf.texi (Limitations of Usual Tools) <tr>: Mention
that 'redundant' brackets can work around Solaris bug.
(File Descriptors): Mention that {} works as well as () for
silencing file-not-found warnings.
* THANKS: Update.
Suggested by Pádraig Brady.

Signed-off-by: Eric Blake <eblake@redhat.com>

diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index d7102e3d2bc3a555c8956fffc4a1cbd6ee7b763f..576f6151358f986254002ea53775487cf2d9748a 100644 (file)
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -4,6 +4,16 @@
        * doc/autoconf.texi (Configuration Actions): Fix typo.
        * THANKS: Update.
 
+2010-10-05  Eric Blake  <eblake@redhat.com>
+
+       doc: suggest a few more workarounds
+       * doc/autoconf.texi (Limitations of Usual Tools) <tr>: Mention
+       that 'redundant' brackets can work around Solaris bug.
+       (File Descriptors): Mention that {} works as well as () for
+       silencing file-not-found warnings.
+       * THANKS: Update.
+       Suggested by Pádraig Brady.
+
 2010-09-24  Ralf Wildenhues  <Ralf.Wildenhues@gmx.de>
 
        tests: normalize trailing spaces in gcc -E -dD output.

diff --git a/THANKS b/THANKS
index 869e8822d9e826de3f37c17b3c06e7d83f471944..6a81f746d814c109b38399cf77a9830588eea6b3 100644 (file)
--- a/THANKS
+++ b/THANKS
@@ -313,6 +313,7 @@ Paul Martinolich            martinol@datasync.com
 Paul Pogonyshev             ?
 Paul Townsend               ?
 Pavel Roskin                pavel_roskin@geocities.com
+Pádraig Brady               P@draigbrady.com
 Per Øyvind Karlsen          peroyvind@mandriva.org
 Peter Breitenlohner         peb@mppmu.mpg.de
 Peter Eisentraut            peter_e@gmx.net

diff --git a/doc/autoconf.texi b/doc/autoconf.texi
index 0640320c4de14416edfef36d75cf50c29c774caa..b9570834e1c48e8ec35c950af750158a150291b0 100644 (file)
--- a/doc/autoconf.texi
+++ b/doc/autoconf.texi
@@ -15033,12 +15033,12 @@ escape, while @samp{: `cd /zorglub 2>/dev/null`} works properly.
 On the other hand, some shells, such as Solaris or FreeBSD
 @command{/bin/sh}, warn about missing programs before performing
 redirections.  Therefore, to silently check whether a program exists, it
-is necessary to perform redirections on a subshell:
-
+is necessary to perform redirections on a subshell or brace group:
 @example
 $ @kbd{/bin/sh -c 'nosuch 2>/dev/null'}
 nosuch: not found
 $ @kbd{/bin/sh -c '(nosuch) 2>/dev/null'}
+$ @kbd{/bin/sh -c '@{ nosuch; @} 2>/dev/null'}
 $ @kbd{bash -c 'nosuch 2>/dev/null'}
 @end example
 
@@ -19032,13 +19032,16 @@ $ @kbd{nl='}
 moonlight
 @end example
 
-Not all versions of @command{tr} recognize ranges of characters: at
+Not all versions of @command{tr} recognize direct ranges of characters: at
 least Solaris @command{/usr/bin/tr} still fails to do so.  But you can
-use @command{/usr/xpg4/bin/tr} instead.
+use @command{/usr/xpg4/bin/tr} instead, or add brackets (which in Posix
+transliterate to themselves).
 
 @example
 $ @kbd{echo "Hazy Fantazy" | LC_ALL=C /usr/bin/tr a-z A-Z}
 HAZy FAntAZy
+$ @kbd{echo "Hazy Fantazy" | LC_ALL=C /usr/bin/tr '[a-z]' '[A-Z]'}
+HAZY FANTAZY
 $ @kbd{echo "Hazy Fantazy" | LC_ALL=C /usr/xpg4/bin/tr a-z A-Z}
 HAZY FANTAZY
 @end example