Re: false --help vs. false --version

[Jim Meyering]

address@hidden (Paul Jarc) wrote:
> Paul Eggert <address@hidden> wrote:
>> I love poking sticks into hornets' nests, so I can't resist mentioning
>> that coreutils "true" sometimes returns false:
>>
>>    $ ./true --version >&-
>>    ./true: write error: Bad file number
>>    $ echo $?
>>    1
>
> Hm - I can't reproduce this.
>
> $ `which true` --version
> true (GNU coreutils) 4.5.12
> Written by Jim Meyering.
>
> Copyright (C) 2003 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
> This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
> warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
> $ `which true` --version >&-; echo $?
> 0
> $ `which true` --help >&-; echo $?
> 0
>
> glibc 2.3.2, if that makes a diffference.

Odd.
I can reproduce it with glibc 2.3.1, bash 2.05b.0, and x86 linux-2.4.19:

  $ strace -e close ./true --version >&-
  close(1)                                = 0
  close(1)                                = 0
  close(1)                                = -1 EBADF (Bad file descriptor)
  ./true: write error: Bad file descriptor