values for zenity --list cannot begin with a dash (-)

[Karel Vervaeke]

Binary package hint: zenity

lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 9.10
Release: 9.10

zenity --version
2.28.0

apt-cache policy zenity
zenity:
  Installed: 2.28.0-0ubuntu2
  Candidate: 2.28.0-0ubuntu2
  Version table:
 *** 2.28.0-0ubuntu2 0
        500 http://be.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

to reproduce:
zenity --list --column flags "-foo" "-bar"
This option is not available. Please see --help for all possible usages.

workaround:
You can work around it by adding a space in front (but then the space becomes part of the selected value, so you should remove the space later)
zenity --list --column flags " -foo" " -bar"

suggested solution:
commands like 'cp', 'rm' and many more use the convention that everything after "--" is interpreted literally (no more flags). If zenity also did this you could write
zenity --list --column flags -- -foo -bar
(Other software requires you to write -- before every argument that needs escaping. e.g. zenity --list --column flags -- -foo -- -bar)

[Karel Vervaeke (karel-vervaeke)]

Also posted to bugzilla.gnome.org:

https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=612586

(zenity doesn't use launchpad for bugtracking but apparently I can still file bugs here :-/)

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

Thanks for the report, linking the upstream one.