perlbug should do something useful when passed --help

[p5pRT]

Migrated from rt.perl.org#130032 (status was 'resolved')

Searchable as RT130032$

[p5pRT]

From @kentfredric

Created by @kentfredric

I have a recurring problem where I, due to using perlbug incredibly
infrequently, run it every time with "perlbug --help" in order to
ascertain which options it has.

And every time, I forget that "--help" does not do what I think it
does, and perlbug fires up the prompting stuff I meant to avoid.

And I then have to ^C, and run "perlbug -h" instead.

Ideally perlbug should do *something* with --help ( and in general
with unrecognised arguments ), not blithely continue doing what it
was doing as if everything was fine.

Perl Info

Flags:
    category=utilities
    severity=wishlist

Site configuration information for perl 5.25.6:

Configured by kent at Sun Oct 23 19:51:02 NZDT 2016.

Summary of my perl5 (revision 5 version 25 subversion 6) configuration:
   
  Platform:
    osname=linux
    osvers=4.8.1-gentoo
    archname=x86_64-linux
    uname='linux katipo2 4.8.1-gentoo #42 smp preempt mon oct 17 08:36:06 nzdt 2016 x86_64 intel(r) core(tm) i5-2410m cpu @ 2.30ghz genuineintel gnulinux '
    config_args='-de -Dprefix=/home/kent/perl5/perlbrew/perls/5.25.6-nossp-sdbm-nopmc -Doptimize= -fstack-protector-strong -fno-stack-protector -O3 -march=native -mtune=native -Dman1dir=none -Dman3dir=none -Dusedevel -Accflags= -fstack-protector-strong -fno-stack-protector -DPERL_HASH_FUNC_SDBM -DPERL_DISABLE_PMC -Aldflags= -fstack-protector-strong -fno-stack-protector -Aeval:scriptdir=/home/kent/perl5/perlbrew/perls/5.25.6-nossp-sdbm-nopmc/bin'
    hint=recommended
    useposix=true
    d_sigaction=define
    useithreads=undef
    usemultiplicity=undef
    use64bitint=define
    use64bitall=define
    uselongdouble=undef
    usemymalloc=n
    bincompat5005=undef
  Compiler:
    cc='cc'
    ccflags ='-fstack-protector-strong -fno-stack-protector -DPERL_HASH_FUNC_SDBM -DPERL_DISABLE_PMC -fwrapv -fno-strict-aliasing -pipe -D_LARGEFILE_SOURCE -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64'
    optimize=' -fstack-protector-strong -fno-stack-protector -O3 -march=native -mtune=native'
    cppflags='-fstack-protector-strong -fno-stack-protector -DPERL_HASH_FUNC_SDBM -DPERL_DISABLE_PMC -fwrapv -fno-strict-aliasing -pipe'
    ccversion=''
    gccversion='5.4.0'
    gccosandvers=''
    intsize=4
    longsize=8
    ptrsize=8
    doublesize=8
    byteorder=12345678
    doublekind=3
    d_longlong=define
    longlongsize=8
    d_longdbl=define
    longdblsize=16
    longdblkind=3
    ivtype='long'
    ivsize=8
    nvtype='double'
    nvsize=8
    Off_t='off_t'
    lseeksize=8
    alignbytes=8
    prototype=define
  Linker and Libraries:
    ld='cc'
    ldflags ='	-fstack-protector-strong -fno-stack-protector -L/usr/local/lib'
    libpth=/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/5.4.0/include-fixed /usr/lib /usr/local/lib /lib/../lib64 /usr/lib/../lib64 /lib /lib64 /usr/lib64 /usr/local/lib64
    libs=-lpthread -lnsl -lgdbm -ldb -ldl -lm -lcrypt -lutil -lc -lgdbm_compat
    perllibs=-lpthread -lnsl -ldl -lm -lcrypt -lutil -lc
    libc=libc-2.23.so
    so=so
    useshrplib=false
    libperl=libperl.a
    gnulibc_version='2.23'
  Dynamic Linking:
    dlsrc=dl_dlopen.xs
    dlext=so
    d_dlsymun=undef
    ccdlflags='-Wl,-E'
    cccdlflags='-fPIC'
    lddlflags='-shared	-fstack-protector-strong -fno-stack-protector -O3 -march=native -mtune=native -L/usr/local/lib'



@INC for perl 5.25.6:
    /home/kent/perl5/perlbrew/perls/5.25.6-nossp-sdbm-nopmc/lib/site_perl/5.25.6/x86_64-linux
    /home/kent/perl5/perlbrew/perls/5.25.6-nossp-sdbm-nopmc/lib/site_perl/5.25.6
    /home/kent/perl5/perlbrew/perls/5.25.6-nossp-sdbm-nopmc/lib/5.25.6/x86_64-linux
    /home/kent/perl5/perlbrew/perls/5.25.6-nossp-sdbm-nopmc/lib/5.25.6


Environment for perl 5.25.6:
    HOME=/home/kent
    LANG=en_NZ.UTF8
    LANGUAGE (unset)
    LC_CTYPE=en_NZ.UTF8
    LC_TIME=en_NZ.UTF8
    LD_LIBRARY_PATH (unset)
    LOGDIR (unset)
    PATH=/home/kent/perl5/perlbrew/bin:/home/kent/perl5/perlbrew/perls/5.25.6-nossp-sdbm-nopmc/bin:/home/kent/.perl6/2013.04/bin:/home/kent/.gem/ruby/1.8/bin/:/home/kent/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/bin:/home/kent/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2@global/bin:/home/kent/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.2/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/opt/bin:/usr/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/gcc-bin/5.4.0:/usr/games/bin:/home/kent/.rvm/bin:/home/kent/.rvm/bin
    PERLBREW_BASHRC_VERSION=0.74
    PERLBREW_HOME=/home/kent/.perlbrew
    PERLBREW_MANPATH=/home/kent/perl5/perlbrew/perls/5.25.6-nossp-sdbm-nopmc/man
    PERLBREW_PATH=/home/kent/perl5/perlbrew/bin:/home/kent/perl5/perlbrew/perls/5.25.6-nossp-sdbm-nopmc/bin
    PERLBREW_PERL=5.25.6-nossp-sdbm-nopmc
    PERLBREW_ROOT=/home/kent/perl5/perlbrew
    PERLBREW_VERSION=0.74
    PERL_BADLANG (unset)
    SHELL=/bin/bash

[p5pRT]

From @jkeenan

On Sun, 06 Nov 2016 19​:08​:58 GMT, kentfredric@​gmail.com wrote​:

This is a bug report for perl from kentnl@​cpan.org,
generated with the help of perlbug 1.40 running under perl 5.25.6.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
[Please describe your issue here]

I have a recurring problem where I, due to using perlbug incredibly
infrequently, run it every time with "perlbug --help" in order to
ascertain which options it has.

And every time, I forget that "--help" does not do what I think it
does, and perlbug fires up the prompting stuff I meant to avoid.

And I then have to ^C, and run "perlbug -h" instead.

Ideally perlbug should do *something* with --help ( and in general
with unrecognised arguments ), not blithely continue doing what it
was doing as if everything was fine.

perlbug is simply a Perl 5 program which uses core distribution Getopt​::Std to implement single-hyphen, single-letter (for the most part) command-line switches. So revising it would not be a major effort.

However, since perlbug has been in core since at least November 1995, it's likely that there are people with strong opinions about it.

Perhaps it would move the discussion forward if you (or someone) wrote up a proposal for the changes recommended above and beyond simply implementing a double-hyphen switch for 'help'.

Thank you very much.
--
James E Keenan (jkeenan@​cpan.org)

[p5pRT]

The RT System itself - Status changed from 'new' to 'open'

[p5pRT]

From @toddr

Getopt​::Std already supports --help and --version so I've just updated perlbug to support the Getopt feature.

Fixed in commit 7b1af8a

[p5pRT]

@atoomic - Status changed from 'open' to 'pending release'

[p5pRT]

From @khwilliamson

Thank you for filing this report. You have helped make Perl better.

With the release yesterday of Perl 5.28.0, this and 185 other issues have been
resolved.

Perl 5.28.0 may be downloaded via​:
https://metacpan.org/release/XSAWYERX/perl-5.28.0

If you find that the problem persists, feel free to reopen this ticket.

[p5pRT]

@khwilliamson - Status changed from 'pending release' to 'resolved'