sed manpage does not document I modifier (case insensitive)

[Matt LaPlante]

Binary package hint: sed

sed 4.1.5-8 - intrepid

The current version of sed appears to support the I modifier: adding /I to a search pattern allows for case insensitive search. Unfortunately, the man page does not document the existence of the flag.

[Dave Gilbert (ubuntu-treblig)]

I'd agree, but it is documented in the info page and being a GNU app they tend to prefer leaving the man pages pretty sparse and putting stuff in the info page (and to be fair the man page does point to the info page).
I'd rather see it added to the man page.

[Matt LaPlante (cybrmatt)]

In my opinion, giving partial information in the man page is the worst case scenario. Seeing as it already includes a good number of the available commands, there is significant potential for users to assume that the list is comprehensive. If the owners want to rely explicitly on info pages, they should strip the command list out of the man page entirely and simply leave a note saying "see the info page." Until then, I think leaving holes in the man page is a disservice to users.

[Paolo Bonzini (bonzini)]

Agreed since sed's man page is pretty complete. As they say, patches are welcome. :-)