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From: std-unix@ut-sally.UUCP (Moderator, John Quarterman)
Newsgroups: mod.std.unix
Subject: Re: A convention for -file
Message-ID: <6239@ut-sally.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 5-Nov-86 10:26:26 EST
Article-I.D.: ut-sally.6239
Posted: Wed Nov  5 10:26:26 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 5-Nov-86 22:22:18 EST
References: <6172@ut-sally.UUCP>
Organization: IEEE P1003 Portable Operating System for Computer Environments Committee
Lines: 20
Approved: jsq@sally.utexas.edu

From: seismo!mcvax!guido (Guido van Rossum)
Date: Wed, 05 Nov 86 11:24:11 +0100

What nobody seems to have noticed about the proposed "solution" to file
names starting with "-" by prefixing another "-", is that it would break
shell file name expansion.  If you have a file "-foo" in your directory,
the call
	$ blurfl *
will see an option "-foo" rather than a file "--foo".  You can't build
a remedy into the shell's file name generation mechanism unless you plan
to fix all software that ever processes an argv list at the same time
(or build knowledge about programs' command conventions into the shell).

By the way, prefixing with "./" doesn't work at all times either: the
argument need not be a file.  Ever tried to grep for "-1"?  (Grep has a
solution built in: grep -e).

	Guido van Rossum, CWI, Amsterdam <guido@mcvax.uucp>

Volume-Number: Volume 8, Number 42