I agree with Casper's interpretation of POSIX/SUS option recognition requirements.
I don't see anything in the standard that says that an argument with the first character '-' has to be interpreted as an option (for utilities that specify "None." in the OPTIONS section of their description) and utilities are clearly allowed to treat arguments starting with a '-' (other than "--" used as a first argument following any arguments interpreted as options and option arguments) as an operand. I do not believe that the standard suggests that an implementation needs to document that arguments starting with '-' are operands rather than options for standard utilities with an OPTIONS section that says "None". The standards do say, however, that non-standard options accepted by standard utilities SHOULD be documented. In cases where the documentation for a standard utility says "None." in the OPTIONS section, unless "--" is provided as the first argument an implementation is allowed to interpret a first argument that starts with '-' but is not exactly "-" as an unknown option or to treat it as an operand. An application that uses a string starting with "---" as a first argument to the printf utility is not portable and cannot be classified as a Strictly Conforming POSIX Application, Conforming POSIX Application, Conforming POSIX Application Using Extensions, Strictly Conforming XSI Application, nor as a Conforming XSI Application Using Extensions. - Don
