bug#14608: [feature request] option `--' for signifying end of options and beginning of the list of file names

bug#14608: [feature request] option `--' for signifying end of options and beginning of the list of file names

[niku]

Dear Emacs developers,

Many GNU and *nix world programs have the option `--' to mean end of
the list of options, and beginning of the list of file names.
Examples:
vim -- file1.txt file2.txt
rm -- file.txt

This has the added benefit that filenames with hyphen in the beginning
of the name can be
processed seamlessly, and without a security risk.

Please consider adding the option to Emacs too. In Emacs, it works
already in the X environment,
but not in Linux console. (And it is not documented.) This will

(i) add a useful and intuitive option to Emacs.
(ii) it will displace nothing: there is no such option in Emacs, or in
any proposed feature request. Further, this undocumented feature
already works under the X environment.
(iii) I imagine adding it will not be too much work for the developers!
(i) make it consistent with other text editors, so script writers will
not have to create a separate
case for Emacs.

Thanks for your consideration.

This discussion arose as a result of a discussion here:
http://ranger.carina.uberspace.de/qa/105/a-note-emacs-doesnt-recognize-the-option-in-the-console

Yours faithfully,
~Vaibhav.

In GNU Emacs 23.4.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 2.24.10)
 of 2012-09-09 on trouble, modified by Debian
Windowing system distributor `The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.11204000
configured using `configure  '--build' 'x86_64-linux-gnu' '--build'
'x86_64-linux-gnu' '--prefix=/usr' '--sharedstatedir=/var/lib'
'--libexecdir=/usr/lib' '--localstatedir=/var/lib'
'--infodir=/usr/share/info' '--mandir=/usr/share/man' '--with-pop=yes'
'--enable-locallisppath=/etc/emacs23:/etc/emacs:/usr/local/share/emacs/23.4/site-lisp:/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp:/usr/share/emacs/23.4/site-lisp:/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp'
'--with-crt-dir=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu' '--with-x=yes'
'--with-x-toolkit=gtk' '--with-toolkit-scroll-bars'
'build_alias=x86_64-linux-gnu' 'CFLAGS=-g -O2 -fstack-protector
--param=ssp-buffer-size=4 -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wall
-DDEBIAN -O2' 'CPPFLAGS=-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2''

Important settings:
  value of $LC_ALL: nil
  value of $LC_COLLATE: nil
  value of $LC_CTYPE: nil
  value of $LC_MESSAGES: nil
  value of $LC_MONETARY: nil
  value of $LC_NUMERIC: nil
  value of $LC_TIME: nil
  value of $LANG: en_IN
  value of $XMODIFIERS: nil
  locale-coding-system: iso-latin-1-unix
  default enable-multibyte-characters: t

Major mode: Lisp Interaction

Minor modes in effect:
  show-paren-mode: t
  display-battery-mode: t
  tooltip-mode: t
  mouse-wheel-mode: t
  menu-bar-mode: t
  file-name-shadow-mode: t
  global-font-lock-mode: t
  font-lock-mode: t
  auto-encryption-mode: t
  auto-compression-mode: t
  column-number-mode: t
  line-number-mode: t
  global-visual-line-mode: t
  visual-line-mode: t
  transient-mark-mode: t

Recent input:
<escape> x r e p o r t - e m a c s - b u g <return
>

Recent messages:
Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50dictem.el (source)...done
Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50dictionaries-common.el (source)...
Loading debian-ispell...
Loading /var/cache/dictionaries-common/emacsen-ispell-default.el (source)...done
Loading debian-ispell...done
Loading /var/cache/dictionaries-common/emacsen-ispell-dicts.el (source)...done
Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50dictionaries-common.el (source)...done
Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50emacs-goodies-el.el (source)...done
Loading battery...done
For information about GNU Emacs and the GNU system, type C-h C-a.

Load-path shadows:
/usr/share/emacs/23.4/site-lisp/debian-startup hides
/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/debian-startup
/usr/share/emacs23/site-lisp/dictionaries-common/ispell hides
/usr/share/emacs/23.4/lisp/textmodes/ispell
/usr/share/emacs23/site-lisp/dictionaries-common/flyspell hides
/usr/share/emacs/23.4/lisp/textmodes/flyspell

Features:
(shadow sort mail-extr message sendmail regexp-opt ecomplete rfc822 mml
easymenu mml-sec password-cache mm-decode mm-bodies mm-encode mailcap
mail-parse rfc2231 rfc2047 rfc2045 qp ietf-drums mailabbrev nnheader
gnus-util netrc time-date mm-util mail-prsvr gmm-utils wid-edit
mailheader canlock sha1 hex-util hashcash mail-utils emacsbug paren
battery cus-start cus-load emacs-goodies-el emacs-goodies-custom
emacs-goodies-loaddefs easy-mmode tooltip ediff-hook vc-hooks
lisp-float-type mwheel x-win x-dnd font-setting tool-bar dnd fontset
image fringe lisp-mode register page menu-bar rfn-eshadow timer select
scroll-bar mldrag mouse jit-lock font-lock syntax facemenu font-core
frame cham georgian utf-8-lang misc-lang vietnamese tibetan thai
tai-viet lao korean japanese hebrew greek romanian slovak czech european
ethiopic indian cyrillic chinese case-table epa-hook jka-cmpr-hook help
simple abbrev loaddefs button minibuffer faces cus-face files
text-properties overlay md5 base64 format env code-pages mule custom
widget hashtable-print-readable backquote make-network-process dbusbind
system-font-setting font-render-setting gtk x-toolkit x multi-tty emacs)

bug#14608: [feature request] option `--' for signifying end of options and beginning of the list of file names

[Glenn Morris]

Version: 24.4

That was just a bug. Fixed.

bug#14608: closed

[niku]

Thanks! Please update the documentation too.

bug#14608: closed

[Glenn Morris]

niku wrote:

> Thanks! Please update the documentation too.

It is already documented.

C-h i m emacs RET
m Emacs Invocation RET

   As with most programs, the special argument `--' says that
   all subsequent arguments are file names, not options, even if they
   start with `-'.

bug#14608: closed

[niku]

Thanks for replying. It isn’t present in the info pages installed in
v. 23.4.1, Debian 7.0. However, that is a Debian problem, as Debian’s
online info pages mention it.† I will inform the Debian package
maintainers.

† http://www.cs.vassar.edu/cgi-bin/info2www?(emacs22/emacs)Emacs+Invocation

bug#14608: closed

[niku]

Actually, I did not have the full documentation installed as Debian
considers GNU Free Documentation License not free enough.

Full documentation is available via package: emacs23-common-non-dfsg

The documentation installed by default is a mini version of it: ‘Emacs
FAQ’, via the package: emacs23-common.

http://packages.debian.org/wheezy/emacs23-common-non-dfsg