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From: std-unix@ut-sally.UUCP
Newsgroups: mod.std.unix
Subject: A convention for -file
Message-ID: <6110@ut-sally.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 26-Oct-86 23:26:31 EST
Article-I.D.: ut-sally.6110
Posted: Sun Oct 26 23:26:31 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 27-Oct-86 03:39:06 EST
References: <6029@ut-sally.UUCP>
Organization: IEEE P1003 Portable Operating System for Computer Environments Committee
Lines: 22
Approved: jsq@sally.utexas.edu

From: weemba@brahms.berkeley.edu (Matthew P Wiener)
Date: Fri, 24 Oct 86 14:27:50 PDT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley

In article <6029@ut-sally.UUCP> Mark Horton writes:
>	Since many commands take names beginning with "-" as flags,
>		file names beginning with "-" don't always work.

There's a real easy fix to the current random collection of special
flags that handle filenames beginning with a dash: always interpret
two dashes at the beginning of a command line argument as the name for
the file obtained by eliding the two dashes into one.  Thus

% rm --xyz ----xyz

would mean remove -xyz ---xyz, etc.  It's completely unambiguous,
until some clown comes up with flags needing two dashes.  Similarly
for ++file with commands using + flags.

ucbvax!brahms!weemba	Matthew P Wiener/UCB Math Dept/Berkeley CA 94720

Volume-Number: Volume 7, Number 91