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Bug#961740: printf attempts to parse options and fails to print --help

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Package: coreutils
Version: 8.30-3

Hi,

POSIX specifies printf has no options, meaning this should print "--help". 
Arguments parsing must simply not be attempted at all in order to be compliant 
as far as I know.

$ /usr/bin/printf --help
Usage: /usr/bin/printf FORMAT [ARGUMENT]...
  or:  /usr/bin/printf OPTION

  ...

From https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/printf.html:
> SYNOPSIS
>
>    printf format [argument...]
>
> ...
>
> OPTIONS
>
>    None.

Bash also does not handle this correctly. However bash is not POSIX sh, hence 
it is not a bug. (It appears bash some some "printf -v var" extension.) I also 
tested zsh, which appears to be fully compliant.

Thanks,

-- 
Melvin Vermeeren

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Bug#961740: printf attempts to parse options and fails to print --help Melvin Vermeeren <vermeeren@vermwa.re> - 2020-05-28 17:30 +0200
  Bug#961740: printf attempts to parse options and fails to print --help Michael Stone <mstone@debian.org> - 2020-05-28 18:20 +0200
  Bug#961740: printf attempts to parse options and fails to print --help Jakub Wilk <jwilk@jwilk.net> - 2020-05-29 19:40 +0200
    Bug#961740: printf attempts to parse options and fails to print --help Melvin Vermeeren <vermeeren@vermwa.re> - 2020-05-29 20:20 +0200

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