On Thu, 2 Aug 2007, Nelson Bolyard wrote: > Craig Dunigan wrote: > >> Thanks David, but initially I couldn't even get far enough to make >> pk12util complain about nicknames. It simply wouldn't do anything but >> return the usage message, which I assume means, like in other *nix >> commands, that I have the syntax wrong. > > Yup. > >> On the chance that pk12util does not follow POSIX standard and is >> sensitive to the order of command line options, I tried re-ordering >> the options exactly following the usage message. That seems to work, >> or, at least, pk12util complained about the nickname. > > Hmmm. I tried pk12util commands with the options in the reverse of the > order shown in the usage, and they all worked. So I don't think order > was the issue. > > Some common things that cause command line parsing errors include: > a) not putting the space between the option letter and the option argument, > e.g. "-dcertdir" instead of "-d certdir" > b) leaving out an option argument, e.g. "-d -P prefix" instead of > "-d dir -P prefix". > c) thinking that all the option arguments can come after all the options, > e.g. expecting "-d -P dir prefix" or tar-style "-dP dir Prefix" to be > equivalent to "-d dir -P prefix". > > Single letter options can be combined (run together) provided that none > of them, or only the last one of them, takes an option argument. > e.g. "-vd dir" is equivalent to "-v -d dir". > >> I'm posting this in the hopes that someone else experiencing this will >> search on "usage message" or "command syntax" in the maillist archive >> before posting, like I did, and see the reason for the repeated usage >> message. I'm also hoping the developers might read it and consider >> implementing the POSIX standard for command line options, or at least >> including a note in the usage message that states that order of >> options matters. > > If it does. I think it doesn't. > > All these commands work properly. These are actual commands I just did, > and they all reported: "pk12util: PKCS12 IMPORT SUCCESSFUL" > > pk12util -i $IMPORTFILE -d $HOME -P prefix -K test -W nss -v > pk12util -v -W nss -K test -P prefix -d $HOME -i $IMPORTFILE > > These commands all work too: > > pk12util -l $LISTFILE -d $HOME -P prefix -W nss > pk12util -W nss -P prefix -d $HOME -l $LISTFILE > pk12util -v -l $LISTFILE -d $HOME -P prefix -W nss > pk12util -vl $LISTFILE -d $HOME -P prefix -W nss > > /Nelson >
First let me say how glad I am to see how responsive you all are on this project. Thank you. I reviewed my history file to see just what it was I actually did, instead of just what I remember doing. You're right, of course. I had another error in the commands that failed, that I also corrected at the same time I tried ordering the options. Sorry, I made the classic leap to an incorrect conclusion because I changed more than one thing at a time. I still maintain, though, that it would be a bit friendlier to report something about what was wrong with the syntax. Seeing nothing more than "Usage" over and over is frustrating. In my case, I kept reusing a mistyped option that didn't actually exist. I was recalling the command from history first, and reviewing only the parts I thought were wrong each time. I'd have reviewed the whole command if it had told me "no such option: '-a'," or even just "bad option," although actually telling me which option was bad is preferable. But I suppose that suggestion could also just be defensiveness after making an ass of myself. :) Craig Dunigan IS Technical Services Specialist Middleware - EIS - DoIT University of Wisconsin, Madison opinions expressed are my own, not the University's _______________________________________________ dev-tech-crypto mailing list dev-tech-crypto@lists.mozilla.org https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-tech-crypto
