[cups.bugs] lpstat -h and -v behaviour

Stefano Sabatini stefano.sabatini-lala at poste.it
Thu Sep 4 15:34:01 PDT 2008


Hi all, not sure this has to be considered a bug, anyway...

Most UNIX users expect the -h command to be available, and that is
indeed one of the first command they'll perform when experimenting
with a new command.

lpstat -h is used for an entirely different purpose, that is:
  -h server[:port]
            Specifies an alternate server.

furthermore lpstat doesn't seem to support any help command, neither
the -v (version) command supported by most programs (it is always
useful for example when you want to show exactly the version of the
program, for example in a sequence of command to cut and paste in a
mail when reporting bug or similiar thing).

So I suggest to implement a show usage message and a version command,
possibly using the expected -h and -v switches, which are those
expected by most users (least surprise rule).

I know this would break backward compatibility, but I think for a good
cause ;-). Alternatively long options support may be implemented,
providing support for the --help and --version functions.

Same considerations are valid for the other cups commandline tools.

Regards.





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