[patch] GetOpt::Std::getopt() doesnt set value of valueless optio ns to 1.

The pod for GetOpt::Std::getopt() from 5.8.x says

"The getopt() function processes single-character switches with switch
clustering.  Pass one argument which is a string containing all switches
that take an argument.  For each switch found, sets $opt_x (where x is the
switch name) to the value of the argument if an argument is expected,
or 1 otherwise.  Switches which take an argument don't care whether
there is a space between the switch and the argument."

The key phrase being "to the value of the argument if an argument is
expected, or 1 otherwise", now if you interpret that the way you would
interpret what is said in the 5.6.1 release ".. to the value of the
argument, or 1 if no argument." then the code currently does not do the
right thing. If this is not the correct way to interperate it then this
represents a behaviour change without deprecation from 5.6.1 to 5.8.x.
Either way I'd say the documentation is misleading and should change. I
havent included a patch for the POD yet as I dont know what is correct. I
personally lean towards either

'...to the value of the argument if one is provided, or 1 otherwise.'

or to

'...to the value of the argument if one is provided, or undef otherwise'

I dont really see what the point is of putting "if an argument is expected"
as all options handled by getopt() are expected to have a value, and in fact
it will assume that a second switch following a first without a value is in
fact the value. IE: getopt('xy') on perl foo -x -y  will set $opt_x to be
'-y', and if called with perl foo -x will set $opt_x to be undef. Actually I
would add a warning to the POD that says that getopt() should not be called
with valueless arguments. 

Below is a patch that makes the 5.8.x version compliant with the intent
expressed by the 5.6.1 documentation.

Cheers,
yves


--- e:\perl-5.8.x\lib\GetOpt\Std.pm.orig        2003-11-17
18:33:03.322500000 +0100
+++ e:\perl-5.8.x\lib\GetOpt\Std.pm     2003-11-17 18:34:40.322500000 +0100
@@ -108,10 +108,10 @@
                $rest = shift(@ARGV);
            }
            if (ref $hash) {
-               $$hash{$first} = $rest;
+               $$hash{$first} = defined $rest ? $rest : 1;
            }
            else {
-               ${"opt_$first"} = $rest;
+               ${"opt_$first"} = defined $rest ? $rest : 1;
                push( @EXPORT, "\$opt_$first" );
            }
        }

• [patch] GetOpt::Std::getopt() doesnt set value of valueless optio ns to 1. by Orton, Yves
• Re: [patch] GetOpt::Std::getopt() doesnt set value of valueless optio ns to 1. by Ronald J Kimball
• RE: [patch] GetOpt::Std::getopt() doesnt set value of valueless o ptio ns to 1. by Orton, Yves