Write wrappers for all POSIX utils that support GNU-style long options

[andychu]

I have been thinking this for awhile, but this thread brought it to the forefront:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20724679

For example, you would have a shell function cut that does all the parsing, and calls the real command in backward compatible form:

var cut_spec = ... # define flags like --delimiter

cut() {
   # ... parse "$@", supporting --delimiter instead of -d
   var opts = cut_spec.Parse()
   var argv = SerializeToPOSIX(opts)

   command cut @argv  # call the external tool
}

This makes shell scripts more readable, while not sacrificing compatibility with POSIX.

It also helps with embedded systems (busybox / toybox), not just BSDs.

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(It's possible to do this with pure POSIX shell via some code gen, but I'm not sure I want to go there. I'd rather test out the Oil option parser.)

[drwilly]

Do the cut_spec.Parse() etc. functions already exist?

[andychu]

They don't exist. I just filed #469 to add this API. I think I have a decent design, but it might take awhile to get to it unfortunately... That issue is blocking this one :-/

[andychu]

Too far off