Re: Allow users to find "--" argument documentation

[Bernhard Voelker]

On 4/21/23 01:20, Dan Jacobson wrote:
> If we read
> (info "(coreutils) cat invocation")
> we also get told about
> (info "(coreutils) Common options")
>
> But if we read e.g.,
> (info "(find) Invoking xargs")
> we never know about
> (info "(coreutils) Common options")
> even though they also apply.
> So unlike cat, for xargs, even if the user has exhausted all the
> documentation steps, man, --help, INFO, he will never learn about "--".
>
> Sure, (info "(coreutils) Common options") says "In fact, every GNU
> program accepts ... these options."

The ellipsis "..." stands for "(or should)" in the original coreutils Texinfo
manual.  It's not a must to accept "--".  E.g. while find(1) accepts it, the
double dash "--" is not really useful due to the way the tool is expected to
parse its arguments.
The man page of find(1) describes it:

  A double dash -- could theoretically be used to signal that any remaining 
arguments
  are not options, but this does not really work due to the way find determines 
the
  end of the following path arguments: it does that by reading until an  
expression
  argument comes (which also starts with a `-').  Now, if a path argument would 
start
  with a `-', then find would treat it as expression argument instead. [...]

> That's great, but some don't directly or indirectly document that fact.

An true, the man page of xargs(1) didn't describe "--" until now.
Done with the attached, and pushed at:
  https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/findutils.git/commit/?id=bbd06d8e065

Thanks for the report.

Have a nice day,
Berny

0001-doc-document-double-dash-option-delimiter-for-xargs.patch
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