Defect report from : Garrett Wollman , FreeBSD Project
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@ page 2632 line 16622 section expr comment {GAW-2002a}
Problem:
Defect code : 2. Omission
(Page and line numbers from draft 7 pdfs -- my library is closed
for the day.)
The APPLICATION USAGE section of the expr utility suggests that
implementations might extend expr by adding options, and that
applications which might want to use expr with values that might
be negative should protect those values with a "--" argument
as described in the Utility Syntax Guidelines.
HOWEVER, the normative text describing the expr utility does not
state that it obeys the Utility Syntax Guidelines, and I am not
aware of any common implementation which will accept a "--"
argument as suggested in the informative text, and the syntax as
defined does not allow for such an argument.
Action:
One of the two following options should be taken for TC1:
a) In the OPTIONS section, specify that although no options are
defined, the Utility Syntax Guidelines for options still apply.
This would require many existing implementations to be changed in
order to recognize "--" as an empty argument.
b) Delete the problematic paragraph from the APPLICATION NOTES
section, and under OPTIONS add language prohibiting implementations
from adding options as an extension, due to the restricted historical
syntax of the utility. I do not know if any implementations would
be required to remove options as a result of this change (but
I do not know of any).
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