Re: program --help behavior

[Ralf Wildenhues]

Hi Karl,

* Karl Berry wrote on Sun, Nov 21, 2010 at 12:52:56AM CET:
>     > 1) allowed by the GCS to produce --help output,
> 
> Certainly.  There is nothing in the coding standards that forbids it.
> 
>     > 2) required by the GCS to produce --help output.
> 
> Certainly not.  There is nothing in the coding standards that requires it.
> 
> In other words, you can make --help and --version work after invalid
> options if you want to.  But you don't have to.  Either way is ok.
> 
>     http://debbugs.gnu.org/7434
> 
> And yes, as pointed out by Stefano, the result of this non-specification
> is that different programs may behave differently wrt invalid options
> and --help/--version.  This doesn't seem like a problem to me, because
> neither interpretation seems obviously better/less "surprising" to me.
> If this isn't good enough and you want me to get rms's opinion on the
> matter, let me know.

That's good enough for me.

Thanks!
Ralf