openssh bugs - Jan 2005 - [Bug 970] document -- as option/non-option separator

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

djm at mindrot.org changed:

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



------- Additional Comments From djm at 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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http://bugzilla.mindrot.org/show_bug.cgi?id=970





------- Additional Comments From cjwatson at 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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