[BusyBox] general inconsistencies in command synopses

Robert P. J. Day rpjday at mindspring.com
Sun May 2 12:53:59 UTC 2004


  if you want to see how pedantic and anal retentive i can get, consider
this -- there's an overall inconsistency in whether a command synopsis
lists the actual command options or whether it just says "OPTIONS" and
leaves the actual enumeration for later.  consider two consecutive 
command writeups in the online docs:

cat
 
cat [-u] [FILE]... 

Concatenates FILE(s) and prints them to stdout.

Options:

        -u      ignored since unbuffered i/o is always used
...
-------------------------------

chgrp
 
chgrp [OPTION]... GROUP FILE... 

Change the group membership of each FILE to GROUP.

Options:


        -R      Changes files and directories recursively.
...


  note how the "cat" synopsis lists the single possible option "[-u]"  
right in the synopsis (very handy), and further explains it below.

  OTOH, the "chgrp" synopsis states only that there is some unnamed 
"[OPTION]".  to be consistent, it should just say "[-R]".  

  this sort of thing occurs pretty frequently.

rday



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