xstdcmap -version behaves oddly

On the commandline I ussed

"xstdcmap -version"

3 times.

Exactly that command.

The result, however had, varies (!!!):

xstdcmap -version
xstdcmap 1.0.5

xstdcmap -version
xstdcmap 1.0.5


xstdcmap -version
usage:  xstdcmap [-options]

where options include:
    -all               make all standard colormaps for the display
    -best              make the RGB_BEST_MAP
    -blue              make the RGB_BLUE_MAP
    -default           make the RGB_DEFAULT_MAP
    -delete map        remove a standard colormap
    -display dpy       X server to use
    -gray              make the RGB_GRAY_MAP
    -green             make the RGB_GREEN_MAP
    -red               make the RGB_RED_MAP
    -verbose           turn on logging
    -version           print version info

First two results are correct. In the last event, though, it shows as if this command was not known. (Note that this does not always happen; it appears to be semi-random when this happens. Just now I tested it again: four times it worked fine, then the two follow-up times led to the full display of ALL help-options. And then it is back to showing only the version, oddly enough.)

How did I discover this bug?

I am using a ruby script to query, on the commandline, the version of many programs, preferring pkg-config if possible; if not I first use --version then -v then -version. On that note, by the way, it would be nice if xstdcmap would also support --version.

xstdcmap is the only program from the xorg-suite I can see that behaves inconsistently: sometimes it reports the version, sometimes it seems to show the result of --help. The other xorg-programs behave correctly, so I suspect something must be wrong with xstdcmap's source code. Or perhaps some other function is called that leads to the above awkward behaviour.

I'd otherwise assume -version to ALWAYS show the same reproducible output, but this is not the case with regard to xstdcmap, for a reason that is not obvious to me.