Re: GetOpt formatting improvements

On 2008 Jun 30, at 2:00, Johan Tibell wrote:

On Sun, Jun 29, 2008 at 11:46 PM, Duncan Coutts wrote:

...

So if people think this is sensible I'll send three patches: 1. word-wrap the description to fit in 80 columns 2. use less padding between columns 3. omit the args on short options when there is also a corresponding long option

What does GNU getopt do in all these cases? I'd prefer if the programs I use on the command line are consistent in their `--help' display and GNU getopt seems to be the standard here. Trying to follow what other people do also makes shell scripting easier.

Options are indented by two spaces. Short options are separated from long by ", ", and that column is left empty if there is no corresponding short option. Option descriptions begin one space after the longest option that doesn't extend past column 30, and word wrap with wrapped lines indented by two additional spaces. If any options go past column 30, their descriptions start one space after the options without attempting to align with the other descriptions, except that wrapped lines are aligned. Practical example: GNU sort

Ordering options:

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too. -b, --ignore-leading-blanks ignore leading blanks -d, --dictionary-order consider only blanks and alphanumeric characters -f, --ignore-case fold lower case to upper case characters -g, --general-numeric-sort compare according to general numerical value -i, --ignore-nonprinting consider only printable characters -M, --month-sort compare (unknown) < `JAN' < ... < `DEC' -n, --numeric-sort compare according to string numerical value -r, --reverse reverse the result of comparisons

Other options:

-c, --check check whether input is sorted; do not sort -k, --key=POS1[,POS2] start a key at POS1, end it at POS 2 (origin 1) -m, --merge merge already sorted files; do not sort -o, --output=FILE write result to FILE instead of standard output -s, --stable stabilize sort by disabling last-resort comparison -S, --buffer-size=SIZE use SIZE for main memory buffer -t, --field-separator=SEP use SEP instead of non-blank to blank transition -T, --temporary-directory=DIR use DIR for temporaries, not $TMPDIR or /tmp; multiple options specify multiple directories -u, --unique with -c, check for strict ordering; without -c, output only the first of an equal run -z, --zero-terminated end lines with 0 byte, not newline --help display this help and exit --version output version information and exit

Note --help and --version (no short options; also, they're boilerplate and apparently GNU getopt makes no attempt to match their descriptions' indentations with the other options, instead using a tab) and --temporary-directory (ends at column 31; word wrap matches the following option); also note the option groups are aligned independently. Also note the explanatory text about option arguments before the first option group. -- brandon s. allbery [solaris,freebsd,perl,pugs,haskell] allbery@kf8nh.com system administrator [openafs,heimdal,too many hats] allbery@ece.cmu.edu electrical and computer engineering, carnegie mellon university KF8NH