Tilde expandion for values of long options

[Per Starbäck]

Configuration Information [Automatically generated, do not change]:
Machine: i686
OS: linux-gnu
Compiler: gcc
Compilation CFLAGS:  -DPROGRAM='bash' -DCONF_HOSTTYPE='i686' 
-DCONF_OSTYPE='linux-gnu' -DCONF_MACHTYPE='i686-pc-linux-gnu' 
-DCONF_VENDOR='pc' -DLOCALEDIR='/usr/local/share/locale' -DPACKAGE='bash' 
-DSHELL -DHAVE_CONFIG_H   -I.  -I. -I./include -I./lib   -g -O2
uname output: Linux sonorant 2.6.18-53.1.4.el5 #1 SMP Fri Nov 30 00:45:16 EST 
2007 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
Machine Type: i686-pc-linux-gnu

Bash Version: 3.2
Patch Level: 0
Release Status: release

Description:
        I suggest that tilde expansion should be done for tokens with
        "=~" even when they start with "-".

        The specific reason is that I expected

                ./configure --prefix=~/something

        to work, but it doesn't, since the tilde isn't expanded.
        There are other cases as well where the value of a long option
        is a filename and it might be convenient to use ~, like
                sort foo --output=~/bar

Repeat-By:
        echo foo=~root          => foo=/root
        echo --foo=~root        => --foo=~root

        In the second one there is no expansion.