cc: ksh93-integration-discuss at opensolaris.org
Subject: Re: Re: [ksh93-integration-discuss] printf syntax and /sbin/sh
compatibility
--------
> Since ksh93's "printf" does not accept any options, why does it parse
> the options anyway?
>
>
Actually, printf does accept options. It accepts all of the
man page and help options, for example,
printf '-?'
printf --man
printf --html
...
printf also has to ingore -- so that an old script that does
printf --
will no longer generate output.
printf could treat the first argument beginning with --- as an operand
and this would have fixed this case, but there is no general solution.
The standard is over 15 years old and at some point non-conforming
scripts might have to be changed.
David Korn
dgk at research.att.com
