Back in 2006, we have this commit:
commit 2b25e1169f44368c120931787628d51731b5cc8c
Author: Peter Eisentraut <peter_e@gmx.net>
Date: Sat Oct 7 20:59:05 2006 +0000
The -X option in pg_dump was supposed to be a workaround for the lack of portable long options. But we have had
portablelong options for a long time now, so this is obsolete. Now people have added options which *only* work
with-X but not as regular long option, so I'm putting a stop to this: -X is deprecated; it still works, but it has
beenremoved from the documentation, and please don't add more of them.
Since then, two additional -X options have crept in, doubtless due to
mimicry of the existing options without examination of the commit
logs. I think we should either (a) remove the -X option altogether or
(b) change the comment so that it clearly states the same message that
appears here in the commit log, namely, that no new -X options are to
be created. The existing comment says that -X is deprecated, but that
doesn't make it entirely 100% clear that the code isn't intended to be
further updated, at least judging by the results.
--
Robert Haas
EnterpriseDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com
The Enterprise PostgreSQL Company