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mirror of https://git.tartarus.org/simon/putty.git synced 2025-01-09 17:38:00 +00:00

Don't print long usage messages on a command-line error.

In the course of debugging the command-line argument refactoring in
previous commits, I found I wasn't quite sure whether PSCP thought I'd
given it too many arguments, or too few, because it didn't print an
error message saying which: it just printed its giant usage message.

Over the last few years I've come to the belief that this is Just
Wrong anyway. Printing the whole of a giant help message should only
be done when the user asked for it: otherwise, print a short and
to-the-point error, and maybe _suggest_ how to get help, but scrolling
everything else off the user's screen is not a good response to a
typo. I wrote this thought up more fully last year:

https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/quasiblog/stop-helping/

So, time to practise what I preach! The PuTTY tools now follow the
'Stop helping!' principle. You can get full help by saying --help.

Also, when we do print the help, we now exit(0) rather than exit(1),
because there's no reason to report failure: we successfully did what
the user asked us for.
This commit is contained in:
Simon Tatham 2024-09-25 16:17:07 +01:00
parent 74150633f1
commit ecfa6b2734
6 changed files with 17 additions and 12 deletions

View File

@ -718,10 +718,11 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
/* /*
* If run with at least one argument _but_ not the required * If run with at least one argument _but_ not the required
* ones, print the usage message and return failure. * ones, fail with an error.
*/ */
if (!infile && keytype == NOKEYGEN) { if (!infile && keytype == NOKEYGEN) {
usage(true); fprintf(stderr, "puttygen: expected an input key file name, "
"or -t for a type of key to generate\n");
RETURN(1); RETURN(1);
} }

6
pscp.c
View File

@ -2236,7 +2236,6 @@ static void usage(void)
printf(" -logoverwrite\n"); printf(" -logoverwrite\n");
printf(" -logappend\n"); printf(" -logappend\n");
printf(" control what happens when a log file already exists\n"); printf(" control what happens when a log file already exists\n");
cleanup_exit(1);
} }
void version(void) void version(void)
@ -2311,6 +2310,7 @@ int psftp_main(CmdlineArgList *arglist)
strcmp(argstr, "-?") == 0 || strcmp(argstr, "-?") == 0 ||
strcmp(argstr, "--help") == 0) { strcmp(argstr, "--help") == 0) {
usage(); usage();
cleanup_exit(0);
} else if (strcmp(argstr, "-V") == 0 || } else if (strcmp(argstr, "-V") == 0 ||
strcmp(argstr, "--version") == 0) { strcmp(argstr, "--version") == 0) {
version(); version();
@ -2351,12 +2351,12 @@ int psftp_main(CmdlineArgList *arglist)
if (list) { if (list) {
if (nscpargs != 1) if (nscpargs != 1)
usage(); cmdline_error("expected a single argument with -ls");
get_dir_list(scpargs, nscpargs); get_dir_list(scpargs, nscpargs);
} else { } else {
if (nscpargs < 2) if (nscpargs < 2)
usage(); cmdline_error("expected at least two arguments");
if (nscpargs > 2) if (nscpargs > 2)
targetshouldbedirectory = true; targetshouldbedirectory = true;

View File

@ -2565,7 +2565,6 @@ static void usage(void)
printf(" -logoverwrite\n"); printf(" -logoverwrite\n");
printf(" -logappend\n"); printf(" -logappend\n");
printf(" control what happens when a log file already exists\n"); printf(" control what happens when a log file already exists\n");
cleanup_exit(1);
} }
static void version(void) static void version(void)
@ -2819,7 +2818,7 @@ int psftp_main(CmdlineArgList *arglist)
if (argstr[0] != '-') { if (argstr[0] != '-') {
if (userhost) if (userhost)
usage(); cmdline_error("unexpected extra argument \"%s\"", argstr);
else else
userhost = dupstr(argstr); userhost = dupstr(argstr);
continue; continue;
@ -2837,6 +2836,7 @@ int psftp_main(CmdlineArgList *arglist)
strcmp(argstr, "-?") == 0 || strcmp(argstr, "-?") == 0 ||
strcmp(argstr, "--help") == 0) { strcmp(argstr, "--help") == 0) {
usage(); usage();
cleanup_exit(0);
} else if (strcmp(argstr, "-pgpfp") == 0) { } else if (strcmp(argstr, "-pgpfp") == 0) {
pgp_fingerprints(); pgp_fingerprints();
return 1; return 1;

View File

@ -218,7 +218,6 @@ static void usage(void)
printf(" --tty-prompt force tty-based passphrase prompt\n"); printf(" --tty-prompt force tty-based passphrase prompt\n");
printf(" --gui-prompt force GUI-based passphrase prompt\n"); printf(" --gui-prompt force GUI-based passphrase prompt\n");
printf(" --askpass <prompt> behave like a standalone askpass program\n"); printf(" --askpass <prompt> behave like a standalone askpass program\n");
exit(1);
} }
static void version(void) static void version(void)

View File

@ -573,7 +573,6 @@ static void usage(void)
printf(" control what happens when a log file already exists\n"); printf(" control what happens when a log file already exists\n");
printf(" -shareexists\n"); printf(" -shareexists\n");
printf(" test whether a connection-sharing upstream exists\n"); printf(" test whether a connection-sharing upstream exists\n");
exit(1);
} }
static void version(void) static void version(void)
@ -807,7 +806,10 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
return 1; return 1;
if (!cmdline_host_ok(conf)) { if (!cmdline_host_ok(conf)) {
usage(); fprintf(stderr, "plink: no valid host name provided\n"
"try \"plink --help\" for help\n");
cmdline_arg_list_free(arglist);
return 1;
} }
prepare_session(conf); prepare_session(conf);

View File

@ -189,7 +189,6 @@ static void usage(void)
printf(" control what happens when a log file already exists\n"); printf(" control what happens when a log file already exists\n");
printf(" -shareexists\n"); printf(" -shareexists\n");
printf(" test whether a connection-sharing upstream exists\n"); printf(" test whether a connection-sharing upstream exists\n");
exit(1);
} }
static void version(void) static void version(void)
@ -350,6 +349,7 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
version(); version();
} else if (!strcmp(p, "--help")) { } else if (!strcmp(p, "--help")) {
usage(); usage();
exit(0);
} else if (!strcmp(p, "-pgpfp")) { } else if (!strcmp(p, "-pgpfp")) {
pgp_fingerprints(); pgp_fingerprints();
exit(1); exit(1);
@ -395,7 +395,10 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
return 1; return 1;
if (!cmdline_host_ok(conf)) { if (!cmdline_host_ok(conf)) {
usage(); fprintf(stderr, "plink: no valid host name provided\n"
"try \"plink --help\" for help\n");
cmdline_arg_list_free(arglist);
return 1;
} }
prepare_session(conf); prepare_session(conf);