Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!romp!auschs!awdprime!doorstop.austin.ibm.com!tif From: tif@doorstop.austin.ibm.com (Paul Chamberlain) Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: shell architecture (to glob or not to glob) Message-ID: <5615@awdprime.UUCP> Date: 26 Feb 91 16:33:20 GMT References: <378@bria> <19062@cbmvax.commo Sender: news@awdprime.UUCP Reply-To: tif@doorstop.austin.ibm.com (Paul Chamberlain) Organization: IBM AWD, Austin Lines: 16 In article kenw@skyler.arc.ab.ca (Ken Wallewein) writes: > As a trivil but amusing example, the other day I had a file whose name >started with '-'. There was no way to tell programs which expects shell >globbing that "this is not a command option; this is a filename". This seems to be a trivial and slightly amusing example of the problems of standardizing switch notation with a legal filename character. Anyone that understands the concepts of switch parsing would know that this has nothing to do with globbing. The current way of doing this in Unix is almost always intuitive and is close to infinitely flexible. A basic knowledge of simple quoting, globbing behavior, and switch parsing goes a long way. Paul Chamberlain | I do NOT speak for IBM. IBM VNET: PAULCC AT AUSTIN 512/838-9662 | ...!cs.utexas.edu!ibmchs!auschs!doorstop.austin.ibm.com!tif Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com