diff --git a/src/bin/Makefile.am b/src/bin/Makefile.am
index 7fc7078ac..4410d71ea 100644
--- a/src/bin/Makefile.am
+++ b/src/bin/Makefile.am
@@ -64,3 +64,5 @@ ltlgrind_SOURCES = ltlgrind.cc
 dstar2tgba_SOURCES = dstar2tgba.cc
 spot_x_SOURCES = spot-x.cc
 ltlcross_LDADD = $(LDADD) $(LIB_GETHRXTIME)
+
+EXTRA_DIST = options.py
diff --git a/src/bin/README b/src/bin/README
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..6e3e7baf4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/bin/README
@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+This directory contains the source of some command-line tools that
+expose some of Spot's algorithms to Unix users.
+
+Man pages are generated from the --help output of each tool,
+supplemented by any text in the man/*.x files.  Usually the extra text
+contains either some bibliographical references, some formal
+definitions or some examples that are too long for --help.  Having a
+few short examples at the end of --help is good.
+
+This directory also build some non-installed binaries, like spot-x,
+whose purpose is just to generate a man-page with the same format as
+the other man pages (this includes keeping the version number
+up-to-date).
+
+There is also a script called 'options.py' that summerizes how the
+different short options are used among the tools.
+
+Routines that are shared by multiple command-line tools are stored in
+files called common_*.{cc,hh}.
+
+
+Recommendations when adding new tools or features:
+--------------------------------------------------
+
+ - Tools should be designed to work on multiple inputs (e.g., read
+   different outputs from multiple files, and accept many inputs from
+   the same file, including stdin).  They should also all be designed
+   to produce several outputs, usually one per input.  This way they
+   can be piped one onto the other easily.
+
+ - When naming an option, seek inspiration from the POSIX standard, or
+   from GNU extensions.  For instance ltlfilt and autfilt both have a
+   -v option to invert the filter; this is inspired from grep's -v
+   option.  The long version of this option (--invert-match) is also
+   the same as in grep.
+
+ - When adding a new option, implement only the --long-option by
+   default.  Do not add a short version unless
+     (1) you are sure it will be frequently used interactively
+         (if it is only used in scripts, then a long option is enough)
+     (2) this option can be shared by multiple tools.
+
+ - As much as possible, use the same option names across tools.  Use
+   the script options.py in this directory to check what short options
+   are used.  It's OK if the same short option correspond to different
+   long names in the various tools, as long as the intent is similar.
+   For instance -n has different long options depending on the tool:
+     autfilt -n N     means   --max-count=N
+     randltl -n N     means   --formulas=N
+     randaut -n N     means   --automata=N
+  but in all cases, the intent is to specify the number of items
+  to output.
diff --git a/src/bin/options.py b/src/bin/options.py
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..0d41562d1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/bin/options.py
@@ -0,0 +1,71 @@
+#!/usr/bin/python
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+# Copyright (C) 2014 Laboratoire de Recherche et
+# Développement de l'Epita (LRDE).
+#
+# This file is part of Spot, a model checking library.
+#
+# Spot is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
+# under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+# the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or
+# (at your option) any later version.
+#
+# Spot is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
+# ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY
+# or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public
+# License for more details.
+#
+# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+# along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+
+# Run all binaries, and collect the long option associated to each
+# short option for easy comparison.
+# This script should work with both Python 2 and 3.
+
+from sys import stdout as out
+import re
+import subprocess
+
+with open('Makefile.am', 'r') as mf:
+    lines = mf.read()
+
+lines = re.sub('\s*\\\\\s*', ' ', lines)
+bin_programs = re.search('bin_PROGRAMS\s*=([\w \t]*)', lines).group(1).split()
+
+optre = re.compile('(-\w), (--[\w=-]+)')
+
+d = {}
+
+for tool in bin_programs:
+    args = ('./' + tool, '--help')
+    try:
+        popen = subprocess.Popen(args, stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
+    except OSError:
+        print("Cannot execute " + tool + ", is it compiled?")
+        exit(1)
+    popen.wait()
+    output = popen.communicate()[0].decode('utf-8')
+
+    for match in optre.finditer(output):
+        shortname, longname = match.group(1), match.group(2)
+        if not shortname in d:
+            d[shortname] = { longname: tool }
+        elif not longname in d[shortname]:
+            d[shortname][longname] = tool
+        else:
+            w = ('%29s' % '') + d[shortname][longname]
+            w = w[w.rfind('\n') + 1 : -1]
+            if len(w + ' ' + tool) < 80:
+                d[shortname][longname] += ' ' + tool
+            else:
+                d[shortname][longname] += '\n%29s%s' % ('', tool)
+
+# The lambda function works around the fact that x might be an str or
+# a unicode object depending on the Python implementation.
+for shortname in sorted(d, key=lambda x: x.lower()):
+    out.write(shortname)
+    first=''
+    for longname in sorted(d[shortname]):
+        out.write('%s  %-24s %s\n' % (first, longname, d[shortname][longname]))
+        first='  '