Albert Cahalan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > ---------------- begin quote --------------- > XBD ERN 16 Utilities that have extensions violating the Utility Syntax > Guidelines Accept as marked. > > It was agreed that an interpretation be made , that the standard > is clear and no change is required. The standard permits > implementations to have extensions that violate the Utility > Syntax Guidelines so long as when the utility is used in > line with the forms defined by the standard that it follows > the Utility Syntax Guidelines. Thus head --42 file > and ls --help are permitted as extensions. > ---------------- end quote -----------------
This doesn't mean what you think it means. Note that it allows --42 (which is no help, since old code doesn't use that), not -42. "when the utility is used in line with the forms defined by the standard" - i.e., when it matches the syntax of the guidelines - then "it follows the Utility Syntax Guidelines" - i.e., it obeys the semantic requirements of the guidelines. > (note that this implies that "ls --help" does violate > the Utility Syntax Guidelines, but that it's OK to do so) Right - since it doesn't follow the syntax, the guidelines don't have anything to say about the meaning of --help. But the guidelines do have something to say about the meaning of anything that does follow the syntax, including -42 (specifically, that its meaning should be the same as the meaning of -24, -2 -4, and -4 -2). I'm no happier about this than you are, but that's what the standard says. paul _______________________________________________ Bug-coreutils mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bug-coreutils