On 22Oct2007 09:21, Tim <ignored_mailbox@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: | On Sun, 2007-10-21 at 06:08 -0400, Robert P. J. Day wrote: | > # mount -oro,remount /usr | | Shouldn't there be a gap after "-o"? No. It is normal for single character options that take an argument to accept it with or without a space. Tar is different for historic reasons but broadly, anywhere you may say: cmd -o foo where "foo" is associated with the "o" option, you may say: cmd -ofoo There are of course a bunch of exceptions to this (such as many of my own shell scripts), but these are due to poor adherence to the spec. Most things that parse arguments with a common library like getopt or popt will behave correctly. All POSIX conformant programs should behave correctly with this. Of course, it is usually SENSBILE to put in a space for both readability and coping with programs that don't do this right. "man 3p getopt" (if your system has it) points you at the POSIX Utility Syntax Guidelines 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, and 10 in the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines. Have a read of this: http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/basedefs/xbd_chap12.html Cheers, -- Cameron Simpson <cs@xxxxxxxxxx> DoD#743 http://www.cskk.ezoshosting.com/cs/ A conservative doesn't want anything to happen for the first time; a liberal feels it should happen, but not now. - Mort Sahl
