WG15 Defect Report Ref: 9945-2-146
Topic: None specified


This is an approved interpretation of 9945-2:1993.

.

Last update: 1997-05-20


								9945-2-146

 _____________________________________________________________________________

	Topic : 		locale -k
	Relevant Sections: 	4.34.3, 4.34.6.1

Defect Report:
-----------------------
	From: [email protected] (Andrew Josey)
	Date: Mon Mar 11 13:50:11 GMT 1996

The specification of locale -k seems unclear.

Running locale -k abday day on our implementation outputs:

abday="Sun;Mon;Tue;Wed;Thu;Fri;Sat"
day="Sunday;Monday;Tuesday;Wednesday;Thursday;Friday;Saturday"

Whereas other implementations of locale  -k abday day output

abday="Sun";"Mon";"Tue";"Wed";"Thu";"Fri";"Sat"
day="Sunday";"Monday";"Tuesday";"Wednesday";"Thursday";"Friday";"Saturday"

According to our reading of POSIX.2 lines 5525-5554 the former
is  a possible interpretation of the spec , since  the required format is

             "%s=\"%s\"\n" <keyword name>, <keyword value>

and that we output the keyword values separated in the output
by semicolons (as per ll 5540-5541). We cannot see the requirement for
additional quoting.


The specification would seem to be ambiguous. Please
could the committee please consider this matter as to what the 
correct interpretation is?

Interpretation response
------------------------

The wording surrounding the format for the output of the -k option is
clear for single value keywords.  The wording describing the output of
compound keyword values is ambiguous as to whether quoted strings are to
be seperated by semi-colons or semi-colons seperated values within a single
quoted string.  The standard is unclear on this issue, and as such no
conformance distinction can be made between alternative implementations
based on this.  This is being referred to the sponsor.

Rationale
-------------
None.
Forwarded to Interpretations group: Mar 11 1996
Forwarded for review: Mar 21 1996
Finalised: July 9th 1996