Re: [PATCH cygutils 1/1] cygstart: add 'runas' as option to elevate privileges like UAC

On 8/8/25 10:51, Mark Geisert wrote:

>> +    {"runas", 'r', POPT_ARG_NONE, NULL, 'r',
>> +     "Short for: --action runas", NULL},
> 
> I understand you're adding a new action selected by arg 'r'...
> 
>>       {NULL, '\0', 0, NULL, 0, NULL, NULL}
>>     };
>> @@ -223,7 +226,7 @@ main (int argc, const char **argv)
>>        "Display version information", NULL},
>>       {"license", '\0', POPT_ARG_NONE, NULL, 'l',
>>        "Display licensing information", NULL},
>> -    {"reference", '\0', POPT_ARG_NONE, NULL, 'r',
>> +    {"reference", '\0', POPT_ARG_NONE, NULL, 'W',
>>        "Open MSDN reference for ShellExecute", NULL},
> 
> ... and changing existing action 'r' to 'W'.  But the string "reference" 
> needs to be changed to something starting with 'W' then.  Did you have a 
> word in mind when choosing 'W' as the new action?
> 
> Alternatively, is there a word+action that better indicates what that 
> command does?  Granted, it's a pretty obscure and complicated thing to 
> reduce down to one word.

Correct, -r should invoke "runas". As far as I can tell after inspecting 
these opt structs, this 5th argument (last letter on the line) is only 
used to fetch the option in code. The usable short-hand argument is 2nd 
(empty here).

So to avoid changing the current --reference option, I decided to rename 
the internal letter to "W" as in "Web (reference)", but keep the 
long-name. I found it would create less confusion than instead having 
option -r not correspond to internal code 'r'. The letter 'M' is taken 
by     --maximize too.

In the end, it's just an unfortunate letter collision (I hope my 
understanding is correct) and one has to give way or rename --reference 
entirely (to --web ?). Giving "--action=runas" a different letter than 
'r' would make a really awful mnemonic in my opinion.

Cheers,
Vadim