From: Pádraig Brady <P@draigBrady.com>
Date: Thu, 12 Mar 2026 18:36:27 +0000 (+0000)
Subject: cut: adjust error message to be less specific
X-Git-Url: http://git.ipfire.org/gitweb.cgi?a=commitdiff_plain;h=74047ec55e2af600eece01ae55d76679fcf419c7;p=thirdparty%2Fcoreutils.git

cut: adjust error message to be less specific

* src/cut.c (main): Cater for both misplaced -w and -d.
---

diff --git a/src/cut.c b/src/cut.c
index 65fc664277..7381395d67 100644
--- a/src/cut.c
+++ b/src/cut.c
@@ -1069,8 +1069,8 @@ main (int argc, char **argv)
   if (cut_mode == CUT_MODE_BYTES || cut_mode == CUT_MODE_CHARACTERS)
     {
       if (delim_specified || whitespace_delimited)
-        FATAL_ERROR (_("an input delimiter may be specified only\
- when operating on fields"));
+        FATAL_ERROR (_("an input delimiter makes sense\n\
+\tonly when operating on fields"));
 
       if (suppress_non_delimited)
         FATAL_ERROR (_("suppressing non-delimited lines makes sense\n\
diff --git a/tests/cut/cut.pl b/tests/cut/cut.pl
index 0e378ed247..7f9325d31a 100755
--- a/tests/cut/cut.pl
+++ b/tests/cut/cut.pl
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ my $from_pos1 =   "$prog: byte/character positions are numbered from 1\n$try";
 my $inval_fld = "$prog: invalid field range\n$try";
 my $inval_pos = "$prog: invalid byte or character range\n$try";
 my $no_endpoint = "$prog: invalid range with no endpoint: -\n$try";
-my $nofield = "$prog: an input delimiter may be specified only when " .
+my $nofield = "$prog: an input delimiter makes sense\n\tonly when " .
               "operating on fields\n$try";
 my $mutual_dw = "$prog: -d and -w are mutually exclusive\n$try";