Re: Always use "--" (Was: Long filenames in DOS/Windows and Unix/Linux)

On Wed, 4 Sep 2024 13:17:48 -0000 (UTC), Lew Pitcher wrote:

The "--" option is just that, an option coded into the argument parser
of the program being invoked. Many programs /do not/ recognize "--" as
an "end of flags" argument, so the effectiveness of "--" is unreliable.

All the good ones do. This is why getopt(3) with POSIXLY_CORRECT stops
looking for options as soon as a nonoption argument is encountered.

Remember also that arguments need not necessarily be file names, so
prefixing them all with “./” willy-nilly may not produce the right result
anyway.