Actually a --fu variable is not that useful in Plan 9:

% --fu=bar
% echo $--fu
rc: null list in concatenation
% echo "$--fu"
rc: null list in concatenation
% ls /env
'/env/*'
/env/--fu
...

So rc can create a variable starting with more than one '-', but can't use it.

So I wonder if there is a definition of "the right thing" that can fix this incongruence and also allow the UNIX usage.

Giacomoec

2017-05-15 17:59 GMT+02:00 Charles Forsyth <charles.forsyth@gmail.com>:

On 15 May 2017 at 16:54, Erik Quanstrom <quanstro@quanstro.net> wrote:
if we implement the right thing, then arguments like --fu=bar will be 'eaten silently' from the perspective of the (human) operator. sure gigo, but this seems extra hard o get right in a Unix environment.

It would be better then to leave things as they are.
= is part of rc syntax, like {} and (), and it interprets it, not the commands, unless quoted.