Bug 7101

Summary:	getopt message for ambiguous options could be more helpful
Product:	glibc	Reporter:	James Youngman <jay>
Component:	libc	Assignee:	Ulrich Drepper <drepper.fsp>
Status:	RESOLVED FIXED
Severity:	normal	CC:	glibc-bugs
Priority:	P3	Flags:	fweimer: security-
Version:	unspecified
Target Milestone:	---
Host:		Target:
Build:		Last reconfirmed:
Attachments:	getopt patch to indicate two of the possible meanings of an ambiguous abbreviation

Description James Youngman 2008-12-14 19:17:36 UTC

$ xargs --ma 7 
xargs: option `--ma' is ambiguous

Indicating that this might be an abbreviation for --max-lines or --max-chars
would be more helpful.

Comment 1 James Youngman 2008-12-14 19:20:00 UTC

Created attachment 3107 [details]
getopt patch to indicate two of the possible meanings of an ambiguous abbreviation

This patch includes two of the possible expansions of the abbreviation the user
specified in the error message the user sees.

Comment 2 Ulrich Drepper 2011-05-15 17:36:11 UTC

Golden rule in CS: the only acceptable numbers are 0, 1, oo.  Just printing two of possibly many options is not acceptable.  I added a patch which prints all options.