Ok. I understand it is not possible to make “-V “ instead of “-Vfilename” because so many existing scripts rely on thatgrept works a certain way.
Maybe what is possible is to add a line to manual that explains that certain filenames that are OK in modern OS might not work with grep.
I have used “-" sometimes to keep certain file at the top of directory hierarchy. In this case I was organizing libraries and marked those that I was not using with “-“.
Here is command-line example that you asked.
Even looked from the manual the simple example and did not see what I was doing wrong (I did not read the whole manual.)
So if the program user interface cannot be changed maybe the manual could tell that filenames that start with “-“ might require some additional quoting....
Marja
********* No need to reply *********
I had a directory with filenames that started with “-“
doing grep on that directory for a “string" did not find anything
although “string was on some of the files”
grep just kept repeating something … FreeBSD
Finally, (with some help) I understood that grep interpreted “-Vfiename” as an option -V and
gave the version info instead of doing grep “string” *
Maybe there is a way to add space after “-V “ and possibly also other options that could be used as part of a filename in some operating systems?