POSIX requires "test --help" and "test --version" to succeed silently, and coreutils conforms to POSIX in this respect. It was thought more useful for "test" to work the same way on every nonempty string, than for it to add incompatible support for "--help" and "--version".
"[ --help" and "[ --version" will output help and version messages, though, so you can use that instead. This is an upward compatible extension to POSIX. "true --help" and "true --version" do work in coreutils 5.93; this was fixed a while ago. The business about "test --help" is explained in the coreutils 5.93 manual, as follows: If EXPRESSION is omitted, `test' returns false. If EXPRESSION is a single argument, `test' returns false if the argument is null and true otherwise. The argument can be any string, including strings like `-d', `-1', `--', `--help', and `--version' that most other programs would treat as options. To get help and version information, invoke the commands `[ --help' and `[ --version', without the usual closing brackets. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
