[debian-policy] 11.8.3 "Packages providing a terminal emulator" says xterm passes -e option straight to exec

[Jonathan Nieder]

Hi terminal emulator authors (in bcc),

There is a policy proposal to clarify what

	x-terminal-emulator -e <args>

does when there is one argument and when there are many arguments.

Currently policy says:

| To be an `x-terminal-emulator', a program must:
|    * Be able to emulate a DEC VT100 terminal, or a compatible
|      terminal.
|    * Support the command-line option `-e <command>', which creates a
|      new terminal window[1] and runs the specified <command>,
|      interpreting the entirety of the rest of the command line as a
|      command to pass straight to exec, in the manner that `xterm'
|      does.
|    * Support the command-line option `-T <title>', which creates a new
|      terminal window with the window title <title>.

The proposal is to amend that second bullet point:

|    * Support the command-line option "-e <command> <arg>...", which
|      creates a new terminal window and runs the specified command.
|      The arguments passed after "-e" form the argument list to the
|      executed program.  In other words, the behavior is as though
|      the arguments were passed directly to execvp, bypassing the
|      shell.  (xterm's behavior of falling back on using the shell if
|      -e had a single argument and exec failed is permissible but not
|      required.)

Does that look like a good change to you?  (If so, you may second it.)
Any ideas for improving it?  (Improvements welcome.)

Thanks,
Jonathan