GNU bug report logs - #18103
sleep infinity

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: 積丹尼 Dan Jacobson <jidanni <at> jidanni.org>
To: bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org
Subject: sleep infinity
Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2014 08:43:03 +0800

Perhaps add an infinity option:
$ sleep infinity
or mention a workaround in the documentation.

Message #8 received at 18103 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Bernhard Voelker <mail <at> bernhard-voelker.de>
To: 積丹尼 Dan Jacobson <jidanni <at> jidanni.org>, 
 18103 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#18103: sleep infinity
Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2014 09:28:10 +0200

On 07/25/2014 02:43 AM, 積丹尼 Dan Jacobson wrote:
> Perhaps add an infinity option:
> $ sleep infinity
> or mention a workaround in the documentation.

Thanks for the proposal.
However, while the theoretical need may be there, I don't
see a practical use case here.

The internal data type is already a 'double', so it's
more than big enough. You could e.g. use

  $ sleep 10000d

which is ...

  $ bc <<<"10000 / 365"
  27

... 27 years; and nothing prevents you from choosing
_much_ larger numbers - although I doubt you'll really
want to wait that long.

Can you give an example where you'd need a "sleep forever"?

Have a nice day,
Berny

Message #11 received at 18103 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
To: 積丹尼 Dan Jacobson <jidanni <at> jidanni.org>, 
 18103 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#18103: sleep infinity
Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2014 18:10:16 -0400

On 07/24/2014 08:43 PM, 積丹尼 Dan Jacobson wrote:
> Perhaps add an infinity option:
> $ sleep infinity
>

That already works.  At least it works for me, as long as I cared to 
test it....

Message #14 received at 18103 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: 積丹尼 Dan Jacobson <jidanni <at> jidanni.org>
To: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
Cc: 18103 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#18103: sleep infinity
Date: Sat, 26 Jul 2014 18:15:04 +0800

The user needs to know what is a safe guess for an arbitrarily high
number, i.e., the man page should state the legal range for NUMBER.
0 .. [WHAT?]
Hmmm, on my system
$ sleep 99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
apparently works but I'm not going to wait around to find out.

Anyway give a statement there on the man page about how one can
determine the highest value one can use on ones system.

>>>>> "PE" == Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu> writes:

PE> On 07/24/2014 08:43 PM, 積丹尼 Dan Jacobson wrote:
>> Perhaps add an infinity option:
>> $ sleep infinity

PE> That already works.  At least it works for me, as long as I cared to
PE> test it....

And indeed it does! But who would ever guess? Please document it on the
man page! Anyway, still mention what the legal range of values is too!

$ strings /bin/sleep|grep -i infinity
$

Message #17 received at 18103 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
To: 積丹尼 Dan Jacobson <jidanni <at> jidanni.org>
Cc: 18103 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#18103: sleep infinity
Date: Sat, 26 Jul 2014 08:01:06 -0400

On 07/26/2014 06:15 AM, 積丹尼 Dan Jacobson wrote:
> And indeed it does! But who would ever guess?

Well, *you* figured it out.  Plus, you deduced 
99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999, an alternative that 
also works for all practical purposes.

This stuff is documented in the coreutils manual.  It's not clear that 
this particular detail is so important that it needs to be in the sleep 
--help output aka man page.

Message #20 received at 18103 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: 積丹尼 Dan Jacobson <jidanni <at> jidanni.org>
To: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
Cc: 18103 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#18103: sleep infinity
Date: Sat, 26 Jul 2014 20:15:03 +0800

>>>>> "PE" == Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu> writes:


PE> This stuff is documented in the coreutils manual.  It's not clear that
PE> this particular detail is so important that it needs to be in the
PE> sleep --help output aka man page.

No seeming mention in
coreutils:
  Installed: 8.21-1.2
        500 http://ftp.br.debian.org/debian/ unstable/main i386 Packages

Not on info sleep nor anywhere else in the coreutils manuals.

Message #23 received at 18103 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
To: 積丹尼 Dan Jacobson <jidanni <at> jidanni.org>
Cc: 18103 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#18103: sleep infinity
Date: Sat, 26 Jul 2014 08:57:20 -0400

On 07/26/2014 08:15 AM, 積丹尼 Dan Jacobson wrote:
> Not on info sleep nor anywhere else in the coreutils manuals.
In my copy of the manual (from coreutils 8.23) 'info sleep' says "GNU 
‘sleep’ accepts arbitrary floating point numbers.  *Note 
Floatingpoint::." and the note explains details.

Message #26 received at 18103 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: 積丹尼 Dan Jacobson <jidanni <at> jidanni.org>
To: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
Cc: 18103 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#18103: sleep infinity
Date: Sat, 26 Jul 2014 21:20:45 +0800

Indeed it says
  However, GNU `sleep' accepts arbitrary floating point numbers.  *Note
  Floating point::.

Alas "infinity" doesn't sound like an arbitrary floating point number.

So maybe it should say arbitrary floating point numbers and "infinity",
else some people will give up instead of following the link. But OK I am
old fashioned.

Message #29 received at 18103 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Pádraig Brady <P <at> draigBrady.com>
To: 積丹尼 Dan Jacobson <jidanni <at> jidanni.org>
Cc: 18103 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#18103: sleep infinity
Date: Sat, 26 Jul 2014 21:32:55 +0100

On 07/25/2014 01:43 AM, 積丹尼 Dan Jacobson wrote:
> Perhaps add an infinity option:
> $ sleep infinity
> or mention a workaround in the documentation.

I'm having déjà vu with http://bugs.gnu.org/7877
`sleep inf` was mentioned there with portability notes.
Checking again I see it's not portable to solaris 10 or FreeBSD 9.1
Personally I've preferred "inf" rather than "infinity" in my scripts, as:

  $ printf '%g\n' infinity INF
  inf
  inf

cheers,
Pádraig.

Message #34 received at 18103-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Bernhard Voelker <mail <at> bernhard-voelker.de>
To: 積丹尼 Dan Jacobson <jidanni <at> jidanni.org>, 
 Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
Cc: Eric Blake <eblake <at> redhat.com>, 18103-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#18103: sleep infinity
Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2014 08:09:55 +0200

tag 18103 fixed
thanks

On 07/26/2014 03:20 PM, 積丹尼 Dan Jacobson wrote:
> So maybe it should say arbitrary floating point numbers and "infinity"

"sleep inf" already works and "inf" is now also documented
in the section "Floating points" with Eric's commit
http://git.sv.gnu.org/cgit/coreutils.git/commit/?id=d8a19e0336

I'm therefore marking this bug as done.

Thanks & have a nice day,
Berny

Message #37 received at 18103-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: 積丹尼 Dan Jacobson <jidanni <at> jidanni.org>
To: Bernhard Voelker <mail <at> bernhard-voelker.de>
Cc: Eric Blake <eblake <at> redhat.com>, Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>,
 18103-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#18103: sleep infinity
Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2014 14:20:02 +0800

OK however on the sleep info page it says

   Historical implementations of `sleep' have required that NUMBER be
an integer, and only accepted a single argument without a suffix.
However, GNU `sleep' accepts arbitrary floating point numbers.  *Note
Floating point::.

However for at least me, I wouldn't have thought that paragraph also
meant infinity. So you might want to say

   Historical implementations of `sleep' have required that NUMBER be
an integer, and only accepted a single argument without a suffix.
However, GNU `sleep' accepts arbitrary floating point numbers and infinity.  *Note
Floating point::.

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