Re: BUG #19042: Option --help not recognized at the end of command line in pg_restore

Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>

From: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
To: Matthias Hörmann <matthias.hoermann@saltation.com>
Cc: Daniel Gustafsson <daniel@yesql.se>, pgsql-bugs@lists.postgresql.org
Date: 2025-09-03T14:57:53Z
Lists: pgsql-bugs
Matthias =?utf-8?Q?H=C3=B6rmann?= <matthias.hoermann@saltation.com> writes:
> The 2025-09-03 13:45:15, Daniel Gustafsson wrote:
>> This is the intended behaviour, --help (and --version) is parsed specially and
>> must be the first parameter. We do this for all command line utilities.

> Well, the use-case that comes up quite often for me (for any commands,
> not just postgres) is that I add parameters I know or remember from my
> last look at --help and then want to check again what else to add, for
> that it is useful to be able to use --help as the last parameter.

FWIW, I agree with this.  While I don't try to do that with PG
utilities (since I know it doesn't work), I frequently rely on that
behavior of our configure script.  I'd be in favor of recognizing
--help (though probably not -?) in any argument position.  Less sure
about --version.

			regards, tom lane