Manual Synopsis Syntax for Alternative Groups of Arguments

[MajorS...@excite.com]

If I have a shell level program, prog, that may have arguments
prog -a b -c d
or alternatively
prog -e f -g h
how would I write that in the manual synopsis?
Would it be
prog (-a b -c d) | (-e f -g h)
?

Thanks,
Peter.

[Stephane Chazelas]

--
Stephane

[Bill Marcum]

["Followup-To:" header set to comp.unix.shell.]

On 28 Apr 2006 08:39:53 -0700, MajorS...@excite.com

You could simply use two lines:

prog -a b -c d

prog -e f -g h

--
If opportunity came disguised as temptation, one knock would be enough.

[MajorS...@excite.com]

Thanks but what if you have a bunch of options as well like
prog -a b -c d [-w x -y z -q r -s t]
prog -e f -g h [-w x -y z -q r -s t]
Is there no way of compacting this synopsis?

Thanks,
Peter.

[jiin]

On 28 Apr 2006 16:28:51 GMT, Stephane Chazelas
<stephane...@yahoo.fr> wrote:

The normal way to express this in either the manual entry or the usage
statement would be something like this:

prog [-options] <argument>
-a all
-b baker
-r recursive
-z encrypt

Roadhard

[M. Åhman]

On 28 Apr 2006 10:21:33 -0700
MajorS...@excite.com wrote:

One or none of alternatives: [ this | that | other ]
Exactly one of alternatives: { this | that | other }

--
Magnus

[MajorS...@excite.com]

Ah, that's whay I was looking for.

Thanks,
Peter.