Re: Bash printf builtin bug

[Chet Ramey]

Paul Jarc wrote:
> Chet Ramey <chet@caleb.ins.cwru.edu> wrote:
> 
>>That's what the `--' first argument is for:  don't treat any remaining
>>arguments as possible options.
> 
> 
> Does printf have any options?  If not is there any point in giving an
> error in this case?  ISTM SUSv3 requires the first argument to be a
> format string, regardless of whether it starts with "-".  That's how
> coreutils does it.

The SUSv3 has `none' in the OPTIONS section of the printf description.
The description of that value in the `Utility Description Defaults'
section of the standard requires that commands which accept operands
but not options to recognize `--' and handle it appropriately.

The format string is an operand and is described as such.

The coreutils implementation is not compliant.

Chet
-- 
``The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.'' - Chaucer
( ``Discere est Dolere'' -- chet )
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Chet Ramey, ITS, CWRU    chet@case.edu    http://cnswww.cns.cwru.edu/~chet/