Re: psql: do/should we document that argument and option specification order doesn't matter?

"David G. Johnston" <david(dot)g(dot)johnston(at)gmail(dot)com> writes:
> I don't know if this applies anywhere else but I just stumbled across the
> fact that our psql documentation is imprecise:

> https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/app-psql.html

> psql [option...] [dbname [username]]

> It does matter that "dbname" precede username; and that it be present if
> username is specified. But otherwise the first one or two non-option words
> on the command line are taken to be those regardless of position, and any
> extra non-option words are ignored. Options can thus be specified before,
> after, or in between the dbname and username.

This is, unfortunately, platform-specific. glibc's version of
getopt_long() takes it upon itself to physically rearrange the argv
list to make such cases work. On platforms where getopt_long() does
not so blatantly exceed its authority, only the documented argument
order will work.

regards, tom lane