The following reply was made to PR bin/21970; it has been noted by GNATS.

From: Alan Barrett <apb@cequrux.com>
To: gnats-bugs@NetBSD.org
Cc: netbsd-bugs@NetBSD.org
Subject: Re: bin/21970 (printf(1) breaks when format begins with "-")
Date: Mon, 27 Nov 2006 09:21:24 +0400

 On Mon, 27 Nov 2006, hubertf@NetBSD.org wrote:
 > I've sent out a patch as a suggestion, but I'm not sure this came through
 > properly, so here it is again... if I missed the point, please let me
 > know or do the cut&paste yourself, see also localsrc/legal/TheOpenGroup
 > while there.
 > 
 > 
 >  - Hubert
 > 
 > P.S.: I also have a patch that has  12.1 Utility Argument Syntax
 > of the SUSv3 in *roff format, just in case that's what you want to have
 > in that manpage. Let me know if so!
 
 Thanks Hubert.  I think it would be useful to add something to
 intro(1) explaining that most utilities accept "--" for "end
 of options", "-xyz" often means the same as "-x" "-y" "-z",
 "-oarg" often means the same as "-o" "arg", option order usually
 doesn't matter, etc.  I'd prefer a level of detail somewhere
 between your proposed patch and the text from SUSv3 section 12.1
 <http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/basedefs/xbd_chap12.html>,
 but your patch is good enough.
 
 I still think it's a bug that printf(1) uses getopt.  I think it's wrong for
 any utility that doesn't take options in the usual way to use getopt().
 
 If you compare the SUSv3 descriptions of printf(1) and cat(1)
 (<http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/utilities/printf.html>
 and <http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/utilities/cat.html>),
 you can see that "The cat utility shall conform to the Base Definitions
 volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax
 Guidelines", whereas printf(1) does not.
 
 I don't buy the argument that "OPTIONS None" in SUSv3 means "anybody who
 uses printf(1) needs to insert "--" to guarantee that the format is not
 misinterpreted as an option".  At least, not unless somebody can point
 to text in SUSv3 that says so.
 
 --apb (Alan Barrett)