Re: Does getopt() return "-1", or "EOF", at end?

On Wed, 9 Jan 2002 16:10:15 -0500 (EST)
Bruce Momjian <pgman(at)candle(dot)pha(dot)pa(dot)us> wrote:

> Tom Lane wrote:
> > I notice that in some places we compare the result of getopt(3) to
> > "EOF", and in some other places we compare it to "-1". I think we
> > should standardize on one or the other; anyone have an opinion
> > which it should be?
> >
> > The man pages I have here (HPUX and Linux) both describe the
> > end-of-switches return value as being "-1". The glibc sources also
> > use "-1". Replacing this by EOF seems more readable but perhaps is
> > not strictly correct.
> >
> > Are there any platforms that define EOF as something other than -1?
>
> I think -1 is the only way to go. EOF just doesn't seem right for a
> non-file access function.

FWIW, here's a quote from the FreeBSD man page:

The getopt() function was once specified to return EOF instead of -1.
This was changed by IEEE Std 1003.2-1992 (``POSIX.2'') to decouple
getopt() from <stdio.h>.

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