On Fri 25 Oct 2019 at 11:49:46 (-0400), The Wanderer wrote: > On 2019-10-25 at 11:37, David Wright wrote: > > On Fri 25 Oct 2019 at 14:28:02 (+0100), Michael Howard wrote: > >> On 25/10/2019 14:11, Greg Wooledge wrote: > > >>> Untrue. I pointed out the flaws last time this subject was > >>> discussed on this mailing list. Was that just a few days ago, or > >>> was it last week? I don't remember. > >> > >> Sorry, but it _is_ true. One can't know, nor should one, if the > >> variables and paths are correct, but if they are, i.e. all things > >> being equal, the script is inherrently correct. Of course, it > >> certainly isn't optimal. > > > > What's the role of the hyphen between the two --switches, please. > > I'm not sure whether it can meaningfully serve this function in the > specific case given, but generally - particularly, IIRC, for GNU > programs - a standalone '-' means something like "treat the data you > receive from stdin as if it were the contents of an input file". > > That wouldn't seem to fit too well with the use of the '-T' option, > which appears to mean "read the list of input filenames from the > specified file", but it's what I'd normally expect that syntax to mean.
Sure. - can indicate either of stdin or stdout when it follows -f, stdin after -T, and so on. But I'm asking about its role in this "correct script", and the earlier one where it doesn't even stand alone. (There's no sign of redirection in either script.) Cheers, David.