Re: [PATCH] Fix sloppy Getopt::Long.

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: May 5, 2009, 19:37 UTC
Message-ID: <7vfxfj1gu9.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>
In-Reply-To: <1241547374-6737-1-git-send-email-robbat2@gentoo.org>

"Robin H. Johnson" <robbat2@gentoo.org> writes:

> Getopt-Long v2.38 is much stricter about sloppy getopt usage. The
> trailing pipe causes git-svn testcases to fail for all of the --stdin
> argument calls.

I am not objecting at all; just asking for clarification.

> -			{ 'stdin|' => \$_stdin, %cmt_opts, %fc_opts, } ],
> +			{ 'stdin' => \$_stdin, %cmt_opts, %fc_opts, } ],

Is this "pipe" supposed to be followed by an alternative spelling of the option, as in

	'stdin|standard-input' => \$_stdin, ...

and is the sloppyness that it would be crazy to accept either --stdin or just -- (without actual option name) for this option?

Could an older version of Getopt::Long() have accepted

	$ command --foo --bar - other args

to set $_stdin to true with that "sloppy" syntax? If so people could have relied on such a behaviour, which is a bit worrying.