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[correctness][documentation-ambiguity][printf documentation and help] printf help advertises the explicitly unsupported -v option

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Assessment

Difficulty
1/5
Estimated time
Under an hour
Newbie friendliness
75/100
Issue type
Documentation
Clarity
Mostly clear
Activity status
Active
Tech stack
go
Domain
cli, documentation

Research direction

The usage line is in builtins/printf/printf.go around line 189, next to the code that rejects -v. Check SHELL_FEATURES.md near line 42 to confirm that -v is unsupported. Remove the [-v var] part of the usage text, and add a scenario under tests/scenarios/cmd/help/ that runs help printf and checks that -v is absent. Done when that scenario passes and the help output no longer advertises -v.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

Generated by the rshell behavior correctness scanner.

  • Contract: BEH-009
  • Classification: documentation-ambiguity
  • Impact: low
  • Target: printf documentation and help
  • Scanned commit: 514d1cb8188fda6b1accca5955dfab3b0e8aa34a

help printf prints a usage line advertising [-v var], while SHELL_FEATURES.md explicitly rejects -v. This directs users toward an unsupported invocation. The temporary scenario checks a usage line with that option removed; the finding is a documentation conflict, not a claim that one exact help layout is mandatory.

Contract sources
  • [SHELL_FEATURES.md:42](https://github.com/datadog/rshell/blob/514d1cb8188fda6b1accca5955dfab3b0e8aa34a/SHELL_FEATURES.md#L42): Supported surface; Bash/GNU behavior applies where no intentional divergence is documented.
  • [builtins/printf/printf.go:189](https://github.com/datadog/rshell/blob/514d1cb8188fda6b1accca5955dfab3b0e8aa34a/builtins/printf/printf.go#L189): User-visible help advertises printf [-v var] format [arguments].
Implementation references
  • [builtins/printf/printf.go:189](https://github.com/datadog/rshell/blob/514d1cb8188fda6b1accca5955dfab3b0e8aa34a/builtins/printf/printf.go#L189): --help emits Bash usage including -v, immediately beside code rejecting -v.

Fixture setup

Use a fresh empty working directory for each run. Build from /workspace/repo first. No fixture files are needed. Run the CLI and reference commands with that directory as cwd.

Reproducer

help printf

Commands used:

  • GOENV_VERSION=1.26.3 timeout 300s go build -o /tmp/zz_correctness_scan_rshell ./cmd/rshell
  • /tmp/zz_correctness_scan_rshell --allow-all-commands --allowed-paths "$PWD" -c 'help printf '
  • GOENV_VERSION=1.26.3 timeout 300s go test ./tests -run '^TestShellScenarios$/^.$/zz_correctness_scan_printf_help_surface$' -count=2 -v -timeout 300s

Verification

  • Reproduction runs: 4
  • Reference: Two fresh CLI runs and two scenario runs captured identical help text. Expected help must exclude unsupported -v; exact replacement wording is unspecified. Bash is not an oracle for this intentional -v divergence.
  • Temporary test: tests/scenarios/zz_correctness_scan_printf_help_surface.yaml (removed after evidence capture)
  • Suggested regression-test location: tests/scenarios/cmd/help/

Fingerprint: 1ab3bb5a33aa40ef0898b7a9a899e5cc56a73e99c9886bb4b2bac144c7ea6f0d

Dominant language
Go
Stars
31
Forks
3
Avg merge
2d 9h
Merged PRs (30d)
14

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