Re: POSIX misunderstanding

[Albert Cahalan]

On Fri, 2004-08-27 at 00:09, Paul Jarc wrote:
> Albert Cahalan <address@hidden> wrote:
> > ---------------- begin quote ---------------
> > XBD ERN 16 Utilities that have extensions violating the Utility Syntax
> > Guidelines Accept as marked.
> >
> > It was agreed that an interpretation be made , that the standard
> > is clear and no change is required. The standard permits
> > implementations to have extensions that violate the Utility
> > Syntax Guidelines so long as when the utility is used in
> > line with the forms defined by the standard that it follows
> > the Utility Syntax Guidelines. Thus head --42 file
> > and ls --help are permitted as extensions.
> > ---------------- end quote -----------------
> 
> This doesn't mean what you think it means.  Note that it allows --42
> (which is no help, since old code doesn't use that), not -42.

I'm told that the minutes have been corrected now.

POSIX would have no value as a standard if it actively
prohibited common traditional behaviors. You need to
keep this in mind when reading the standard. If something
looks insane, you're most likely not reading it right.