Re: renameutils 0.6.0

[Bob Proulx]

Oskar Liljeblad wrote:
> Bob Proulx wrote:
> [..] 
> > GNU mv will conform strictly to standard behavior if POSIXLY_CORRECT
> > is set.
> > 
> >   touch a
> >   mv a -- b
> >   touch a
> >   POSIXLY_CORRECT=1 mv a -- b
> >   mv: when moving multiple files, last argument must be a directory
> >   Try `mv --help' for more information.
> 
> Ah, so there we have it. Well, since "--" is unusable with POSIXLY_CORRECT
> enabled (right?),

Works fine with POSIXLY_CORRECT.  As long as the command is in
standard form with options before non-options.

  touch a
  POSIXLY_CORRECT=1 mv -- a b

> imv will have to either get rid of "--" or test for
> POSIXLY_CORRECT itself?

The best case would be to move the "--" after options and before
non-options.  That is, move it before any possible file names.  That
is standard form.  You should do this because that takes care of the
case that a filename might look like an option.

  touch ./--help
  mv --help b
  ...help output deleted...

So you should keep the "--" but you should put it after any options
and before any filenames.

  touch ./--help
  mv -v -- --help b
  `--help' -> `b'

Otherwise you would need to worry about filenames causing trouble.  In
your original case with "mv a -- b" if the "a" filename was really
"-something" it would generate an error about -s not being a valid
option.  It would be a data dependent error case.

Bob