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(web2c.info)Option conventions

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Option conventions
==================

  To provide a clean and consistent behavior, we chose to have all these
programs use the GNU function `getopt_long_only' to parse command lines.

  As a result, you can:
   * give the options in any order, interspersed as you wish with
     non-option arguments;

   * use `-' or `--' to start an option name;

   * use any unambiguous abbreviation for an option name;

   * separate option names and values with either `=' or one or more
     spaces;

   * use filenames that would otherwise look like options by putting
     them after an option `--'.

  By convention, non-option arguments, if specified, generally define
the name of an input file, as documented for each program.

  If a particular option with a value is given more than once, it is the
last value that counts.

  For example, the following command line specifies the options `foo',
`bar', and `verbose'; gives the value `baz' to the `abc' option, and
the value `xyz' to the `quux' option; and specifies the filename
`-myfile-'.

     -foo --bar -verb -abc=baz -quux karl --quux xyz -- -myfile-