From: Masahiro Yamada > Sent: 15 May 2019 18:55 ... > > xargs basename -a -- | sort | ... > > Sorry for my ignorance, but could you > teach me the effect of "--" ? > > I sometimes use "--" as a separator > when there is ambiguity in arguments > for example, "git log <revision> -- <path>" > > In this case, what is intended by "--"? The '--' stops getopt() from parsing any more parameters. Useful things like 'grep -- -q' which will search for the string '-q' rather than treating it as a command line option. This is all made more horrid by a decision by the writers of glibc getopt() to 'permute' argv[] so that 'options' can follow 'nonoptions' ie it converts: prog file -arg to prog -arg file The only program the historically allowed 'late' options was 'rlogin hostname -l username'. This is just broken..... David - Registered Address Lakeside, Bramley Road, Mount Farm, Milton Keynes, MK1 1PT, UK Registration No: 1397386 (Wales)
