> because the user specified a `-v` flag or whatever The way I see it is the version information and help text belong on standard output if the user passes --v

> because the user specified a `-v` flag or whatever The way I see it is the version information and help text belong on standard output if the user passes --version and --help since that's what the user explicitly asked for. When the command is invoked incorrectly, the help text should go to standard error while standard output should be empty. I agree about the exit code. People like to parse error messages and that's always wrong. Everything should be done via exit codes instead.