If `--help` does anything besides display usage info or fail, the author of the tool is to blame.
Many applications that are installed outside the scope of a package manager, especially tools distributed as a single binary, lack a manpage.
Many applications that are installed outside the scope of a package manager, especially tools distributed as a single binary, lack a manpage.
No they're not. Not every command line tool uses flags, some use ordered parameters. So parameter 1 might be a file name to write to rather than a flag. Just look at how messy it is working with tools like `cp` and the `--` flag to get an idea of the problems some programs face differentiating between files and flags.
Other tools might not take any command line parameters at all. So it's entirely forgiveable for them not to check if any parameters were supplied.
Then there is the issue that some programs accept `-h` and others `-?` as a shorthand. Some programs have `-h` as short for `--host`.
Plus even if I were to agree with your point, which I don't, it's entirely moot because it's not the author of the tool that is the one who has to fix any issues that might happen to a host system due to someone blindly running commands.
So whichever way you cut it, blindly throwing flags at executables and expecting a favourable outcome every time can be risky.
> Many applications that are installed outside the scope of a package manager, especially tools distributed as a single binary, lack a manpage.
That point wasn't forgotten by me. But if you've downloaded an application outside the scope of the package manager then you should at least have some idea how it functions and thus know whether it's safe to run `--help`. If not, you probably know where to look online to find that information out.
Like I said in my OP, I've got nothing against people using `--help` et al. I use them myself. But it shouldn't be the first thing you recommend UNIX newbies to do when they're figuring out a command. It's usually something you do when you're already familiar with what a command does but need a nudge as to what flags you need to supply.
I’ve also seen plenty of enterprise UNIX era software not follow GNUisms (which ‘-—help’ technically is). It’s all good and well if your just running GNU/Linux with modern DevOps tooling but don’t expect ‘-—help’ to work on every Solaris or BSD application. Not to mention relics like Informix and it’s tools.
Also anything hacked together in house should be treated with caution too. Open those files in $EDITOR and/or examine the README (if you’re lucky enough to have one) first because there’s no telling how lazy your predecessor might have been.
So yeah, over my career I’ve ran into numerous instances where ‘—-help’ might have had unforeseen consequences.
There are almost no man pages at my job and the software is very old so good luck Googling. I practically default to --help here. I figure if --help somehow screws something up then they deserve it.