Mailing List Archive: [Bug 970] document -- as option/non-option separator

[Bug 970] document -- as option/non-option separator

Jan 10, 2005, 3:54 PM

Post #1 of 3 (117 views)

http://bugzilla.mindrot.org/show_bug.cgi?id=970

Summary: document -- as option/non-option separator
Product: Portable OpenSSH
Version: -current
Platform: All
URL: http://bugs.debian.org/289401
OS/Version: Linux
Status: NEW
Severity: enhancement
Priority: P2
Component: Documentation
AssignedTo: openssh-bugs@mindrot.org
ReportedBy: cjwatson@debian.org
Estimated Hours: 0.00

The OpenSSH utilities use getopt(), which according to
http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/functions/getopt.html, manual
pages on the BSD and Linux systems I checked, and openbsd-compat/getopt.c, stops
scanning options when it encounters a "--". Greg Kochanski noted in a Debian bug
report that it's useful for reliable scripting purposes to be able to rely on
this feature, because it eliminates the possibility that a wildcard or a
variable expansion might expand to a valid option.

Since it seems generally useful and available, could this feature be documented?
Thanks.

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[Bug 970] document -- as option/non-option separator [ In reply to ]

bugzilla-daemon at mindrot

Jan 10, 2005, 6:24 PM

Post #2 of 3 (119 views)

Permalink

http://bugzilla.mindrot.org/show_bug.cgi?id=970

djm@mindrot.org changed:

What |Removed |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Status|NEW |RESOLVED
Resolution| |WONTFIX

------- Additional Comments From djm@mindrot.org 2005-01-11 13:24 -------
That is a standard feature of getopt(3) and therefore I don't think it needs
repeating in the documentation of every application that uses it.

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[Bug 970] document -- as option/non-option separator [ In reply to ]

bugzilla-daemon at mindrot

Jan 10, 2005, 6:40 PM

Post #3 of 3 (116 views)

Permalink

http://bugzilla.mindrot.org/show_bug.cgi?id=970

------- Additional Comments From cjwatson@debian.org 2005-01-11 13:40 -------
I view it as pretty similar to saying that options start with '-'; a small thing
and absolutely standard, but it would be very confusing to leave it out. In any
case, so many programs roll their own option parsing in one way or another that
I don't think it's unreasonable that a user wouldn't be sure that ssh uses
getopt without going and grovelling through the source.

If you don't want to repeat it, perhaps at least refer to getopt(3) (though it's
not wonderful user-level documentation) so that it's clear that ssh uses it?

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