Re: Incorrect option processing in builtin printf(1)

[Stephane Chazelas]

2019-07-22 14:55:05 -0500, Eric Blake:
[...]
> > Even if POSIX didn't mandate
> > 
> > printf -- -%s x
> > 
> > to output -x, I'd say it would be a bug in the POSIX
> > specification (it looks like it is).
> 
> POSIX _does_ mandate 'printf -- -%s x' to output exactly '-x', by virtue
> of the fact that it mandates all utilities (other than special builtins)
> with the specification 'OPTIONS None.' to parse and ignore '--' as the
> end of options, whether or not the utility takes options as an
> extension.  If NetBSD broke that behavior, that is a bug in NetBSD's
> shell, not bash nor POSIX.
[...]

Yes, thanks for pointing to the right section. I wish POSIX made
it clearer. Having it spread like that in different sections
with no full linking within them is suboptimal. The special
treatment of special builtins seems bogus to me as well (like
the fact that it seems it makes : "$x" unspecified unless $x can
be guaranteed not to start with -; the description of the colon
utility with its "expands its arguments" is bogus anyway).

-- 
Stephane