[Mono-list] Bug in command-line handling of mcs.exe

Miguel de Icaza miguel@ximian.com
21 Feb 2002 10:48:55 -0500


> The command "mcs.exe -?" behaves as expected, "mcs.exe /?" raises an
> ArgumentException ("Second path fragment must not be a drive or UNC
> name"). B.t.w, my claim is not that "/?" should behave like "-?", but an
> exception is the other extreme :-)

I have added a hack for now, so that /? and /help and /h will do what
you expect them to, but this is a short term solution.  The long term
solution needs to explore the following:

	* Make our command line arguments Microsoft-compatible.

	* Allow for both --option or /option.

	* Auto-detect the OS, and use the command line options
	  accordingly (not a good idea, because then makefiles are 
	  not "portable").

	* Always handle /option like --option, and have a special
	  /quote to "quote" the next option as a filename, so
	  if you really wanted to compile /? (which btw, right now
	  we refuse to, because it has to end in .cs), then you would
	  use:
		mcs /quote /?

Miguel