web2c: Option conventions
3.1 Option conventions
======================
To provide a clean and consistent behavior, we chose to have all these
programs use the GNU function 'getopt_long_only' to parse command lines.
However, we do use in a restricted mode, where all the options have to
come before the rest of the arguments.
As a result, you can:
* use '-' or '--' to start an option name;
* use any unambiguous abbreviation for an option name;
* separate option names and values with either '=' or one or more
spaces;
* use filenames that would otherwise look like options by putting
them after an option '--'.
By convention, non-option arguments, if specified, generally define
the name of an input file, as documented for each program.
If a particular option with a value is given more than once, it is
the last value that counts.
For example, the following command line specifies the options 'foo',
'bar', and 'verbose'; gives the value 'baz' to the 'abc' option, and the
value 'xyz' to the 'quux' option; and specifies the filename '-myfile-'.
-foo --bar -verb -abc=baz -quux karl --quux xyz -- -myfile-
Info Catalog
web2c: Commonalities
web2c: Common options