Re: Call for objections: deprecate postmaster -o switch?

> Peter Eisentraut <peter_e(at)gmx(dot)net> writes:
> > No it's not, unfortunately. BSD versions of getopt, including the one we
> > ship as replacement, have a bug that considers any argument that starts
> > with '--' to be equivalent with '--' (which means end of options).
>
> Ugh. Nonetheless, that doesn't equate to "you need GNU getopt to use
> this". Can we be more specific about whether it works or not?

OK, I just checked BSD/OS, and see in the docs:

The getopt() function returns -1 when the argument list is exhausted, or
a non-recognized option is encountered. The interpretation of options
in the argument list may be cancelled by the option `--' (double dash)
which causes getopt() to signal the end of argument processing and
returns -1. When all options have been processed (i.e., up to the first
non-option argument), getopt() returns -1.

However, I also see:

Option arguments are allowed to begin with ``-''; this is reasonable but
reduces the amount of error checking possible.

I see in postmaster.c:

while ((opt = getopt(argc, argv, "A:a:B:b:c:D:d:Fh:ik:lm:MN:no:p:Ss-:")) !=
^
And I started the postmaster using:

./bin/postmaster -B 2000 -i $DEBUG --sort-mem=60

so while the documentation says "--" ends arguments, it appears if you
specify "-" to getopt, it will honor it and not end the argument list.

Because this is identical on BSD/OS and FreeBSD, I assume all the BSD's
are the same. Peter, was there a specific failure of "--" options that
you remember?

I will be glad to put the docs back to warning about "--" options if is
indeed true, or perhaps we can be more specific.

--
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