Re: [Fwd: cat: invalid option -- h]

[Eric Blake]

> > 
> > Just because two extreme cases support -h as a alias for --help,
> > doesn't mean that it is a GNU convention.  You still haven't given a
> > good reason why -h should be a alias for --help.
> 
> It is a common getopt option to trigger command line help, the most 
> common I suggest.  --help is the most common getoptlong option in GNU. 
> Perhaps there is a GNU standard which covers this aspect of programs 
> user-friendly-ness.

The GNU coding standards ONLY require --help, and not -h, because of
the fact that -h is ambiguous and some commands already have it
standardized to mean something other than help.  If you want help
from a GNU program, --help is the only spelling that is guaranteed
to work.

> We'll all have to remember to use --help long option if -h is not going 
> to be consistent then. We can agree to differ on that if you cannot 
> agree with my proposal.

You are correct - coreutils is not going to add -h where it does not
already exist, because --help already exists.

--
Eric Blake