Xref: utzoo comp.lang.c:9185 comp.unix.wizards:7724
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!mordor!sri-spam!sri-unix!quintus!ok
From: ok@quintus.UUCP (Richard A. O'Keefe)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c,comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: command line options
Message-ID: <867@cresswell.quintus.UUCP>
Date: 12 Apr 88 06:04:07 GMT
References: <2414@zyx.UUCP> <8039@elsie.UUCP> <7628@brl-smoke.ARPA> <143@gsg.UUCP> <191@sdeggo.UUCP>
Organization: Quintus Computer Systems, Mountain View, CA
Lines: 9

To be perfectly fair, it is worth pointing out that the "-?" hack can be
exploited in a way that is immune to meta-character vagaries.  Instead of
-? or -*, use -/ (/ being the unshifted ? on most keyboards).  / is not
going to be a meta-character in any sane UNIX shell, and it isn't going
to be an option letter in any reasonable program either.  Example:
	% date -/
	usage: date [-u] [+format] [mmddhhmm[yy]] [-a sss.fff]

It's still going to return an error code rather than being regarded as a
normal use of the program, but that presumably won't bother most people.