In http://docs.python.org/lib/optparse-terminology.html
The GNU project introduced "-" followed by a series of hyphen-separated words, e.g. "-file" or "-dry-run". These are the only two option syntaxes provided by optparse. And later: Some other option syntaxes that the world has seen include: * a hyphen followed by a few letters, e.g. "-pf" (this is not the same as multiple options merged into a single argument) * a hyphen followed by a whole word, e.g. "-file" (this is technically equivalent to the previous syntax, but they aren't usually seen in the same program) So my question is whether the first 'GNU' version, was not meant to be --file, and --dry-run? Thanks, Toby -- Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list