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Date:      Tue, 4 May 2010 19:17:49 +1000
From:      Peter Jeremy <peterjeremy@acm.org>
To:        freebsd-arch@freebsd.org
Subject:   Style question: writing multi-line usage messages
Message-ID:  <20100504091749.GA58464@server.vk2pj.dyndns.org>
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I would appreciate some input on the preferred style for writing
multi-line usage messages.  Should:
1) printf() print a series of 1-line strings
2) should string gluing be used to turn multiple strings into one for print=
ing
3) should continuation lines be used to create a single string

I can't see anything in style(9) to cover this.

Variants of the tunefs(8) usage() function follow as examples:

void
usage(void)
{

	fprintf(stderr, "%s\n%s\n%s\n%s\n%s\n%s\n",
"usage: tunefs [-A] [-a enable | disable] [-e maxbpg] [-f avgfilesize]",
"              [-J enable | disable] [-j enable | disable]",=20
"              [-L volname] [-l enable | disable] [-m minfree]",
"              [-N enable | disable] [-n enable | disable]",
"              [-o space | time] [-p] [-S size] [-s avgfpdir]",
"              special | filesystem");
	exit(2);
}

void
usage(void)
{

	fprintf(stderr,
"usage: tunefs [-A] [-a enable | disable] [-e maxbpg] [-f avgfilesize]\n"
"              [-J enable | disable] [-j enable | disable]\n"
"              [-L volname] [-l enable | disable] [-m minfree]\n"
"              [-N enable | disable] [-n enable | disable]\n"
"              [-o space | time] [-p] [-S size] [-s avgfpdir]\n"
"              special | filesystem\n");
	exit(2);
}

void
usage(void)
{

	fprintf(stderr,
"usage: tunefs [-A] [-a enable | disable] [-e maxbpg] [-f avgfilesize]\n\
              [-J enable | disable] [-j enable | disable]\n\
              [-L volname] [-l enable | disable] [-m minfree]\n\
              [-N enable | disable] [-n enable | disable]\n\
              [-o space | time] [-p] [-S size] [-s avgfpdir]\n\
              special | filesystem\n");
	exit(2);
}

--=20
Peter Jeremy

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