For the vast majority of programs that can be run on the command line,
the meaning most people associate with the '-f 'flag is "file",
not "give me a full stack trace".
Thus, it's un-idiomatic & clumsy-feeling to say: gradle -b xxx.gradle
when you are trying to pass gradle its buildfile explicitly.
Most people will naturally want to type: gradle -f xxx.gradle
Consider the following command line options for gradle:
- -s, --stacktrace
Print out the stacktrace also for user exceptions (e.g. compile error).
- -f, --full-stacktrace
Print out the full (very verbose) stacktrace for any exceptions.
- -b, --buildfile
Specifies the build file name (also for subprojects). Defaults to build. gradle.
I think there's a pretty strong argument for making the '-f' switch
correspond to what the '-b' switch means now. The very verbose
stack trace should probably move to another name. Given that
's' means stacktrace, moving "-full-stacktrace" over to something
like '-S' might make sense.
Of course, there are legitimate exceptions to every rule, but it's best
to abide by conventions like this when possible. In Gradle's case,
I think it is. Note that the most common meaning for -b is something
like "binary mode" which makes no sense for a program like gradle.
Hence, there's no harm in letting both 'b' and '-f' mean "-buildfile".
Note: -b has no special meaning for GNU Make, so it's not like we'd
be leaving a banana peel on the floor; also, -f in make corresponds,
to --buildfile in Gradle, following the standard Unix idiom).
Gradle is such a new program and '-f' seems like such a seldom-used
thing in the grand scheme of it all, that a fix for this irritation should happen ASAP,
if folks think that it should happen at all. Obviously, I think it should! 
Some time ago, I did a survey of Unix command line tools in the wild, and added
the most frequent patterns I saw to a very nice list of common idioms at:
http://www.shelldorado.com/goodcoding/cmdargs.html#flagnames
Here are the results, along with examples of programs
that use various flags:
-a append tee -a
all ls -a
-b bit
byte
binary mode
-c count grep -c
command sh -c <command>
-d directory cpio -d
debug perl -d:ptkdb
decompress
-e execute perl -e
-f from file grep -f
force rm -f
-g gui mode
symbolic info
-G no-group ls -G (annoying)
-h help
host
-i ignore grep -i
interactive rm -i
-I include gcc -I...
-j bzip tar -j
-k keep original bzip -k
keep going make -k
kilobytes du -k
-l long format
list files
line count
login name ssh -l
-L follow symlinks
-m mode
merge diff3 -m
megabytes du -m
minutes
-n numeric sort -n
non-interactive rsh -n
-o output file gcc -o
-p process path mkdir -p
process id ps -p
-q quiet mode grep -q
-r reverse order sort -r
recursive rm -r (could use -R)
-R recursive chmod -R
-s silent cat -s (-q would have been nicer)
socket irpty -s
-t table tar -t
time sort ls -t
trace autoconf -t
-u unique sort -u
unbuffered cat -u
sort by access ls -u
-v version perl -v Note: -v means "version" about 2x as often as it means "verbose" in unix man pages
verbose tar -v
-w width pr -w
wide ps -w
words wc -w
-x extract tar -x
by line ls -x
exclude
-y yes shutdown -y
year ncal -y
-z is compressed tar -z
Anyway, I'd be very interested to hear what others think about this.