Re^4: Why is it good practice for a cli script to take switch args before file list?

[leocharre]

Thank you so much for your help- for finding where that was. After reading the discussion here I have no doubts that the best thing to do is expect options before operands.

The slight preference of listing paths before options would not be worth the confusion and added bugs at all.

POSIX ( SUS?, i guess we'll be calling it at some point.. ) has some *must* haves, and *should* haves to qualify for a true POSIX os/app/lib/whatever. I think this case is clearly not a *must* have.. But then, wiping yourself after you #2 is also not a *must* do.
So.. options before operands it is.

And I like what merlyn said, makes a ton of sense. I once saw somewhere that a good utility is liberal in what it accepts as input and conservative in what it outputs.. And how people should be more like that. Sigh.