Here's the way I suggest the options really work

Hi,

The attached file is a ia32 Linux executable.
The "global" svn options are processed and then each command
specific options are processed. You get help with:

  svn --help

to get command specific help, just use:

  svn <command> --help

This should be familiar.....

> svn - Subversion - Ver. Sat Oct 14 11:47:26 PDT 2000
> USAGE: svn [ -<flag> [<val>] | --<name>[{=| }<val>] ]... \
> <command> [ <cmd-specific-opts> ... ] [ <cmd-args> ]
> Flg Arg Option-Name Description
> -d YES repository SVN repository identifier (URL?)
> -v opt version Output version information and exit
> -? no help Display usage information and exit
> -! no more-help Extended usage information passed thru pager
> -> opt save-opts Save the option state to an rc file
> -< YES load-opts Load options from an rc file
> - disabled as --no-load-opts
> - may appear without limit
>
> Options may be specified by doubled hyphens and their name
> or by a single hyphen and the flag character/option value.
>
> WHERE: ``<command>'' may be any of:
>
> checkout update add delete commit
>
> or their aliases. For specific help on one of these commands,
> use ``--help'' as a command specific option.
>
> The following option preset mechanisms are supported:
> - reading file $$/../share/svn/svnrc/.svnrc
> - reading file $HOME/.svnrc
> - reading file ./.svnrc
> - examining environment variables named SVN_*