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<a name="Option-Basics"></a>
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<p>
Next: <a href="Common-Options.html#Common-Options" accesskey="n" rel="next">Common Options</a>, Up: <a href="command-line.html#command-line" accesskey="u" rel="up">command line</a> [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Function-Index.html#Function-Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
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<hr>
<a name="Basic-Notions-About-Command-Line-Options"></a>
<h4 class="subsection">2.1.1 Basic Notions About Command Line Options</h4>
<p>Many command line options have two forms, called short and long
forms. Both forms are absolutely identical in function; they are
interchangeable.
</p>
<p>The <em>short</em> form is a traditional form for UNIX utilities.
In this form, the option consists of a single dash, followed by a
single letter, e.g. <samp>-c</samp>.
</p>
<p>Short options which require arguments take their arguments
immediately following the option letter, optionally separated by white
space. For example, you might write <samp>-f name</samp>, or <samp>-fname</samp>.
Here, <samp>-f</samp> is the option, and <samp>name</samp> is its argument.
</p>
<p>Short options which allow optional arguments take their arguments
immediately following the option letter, <em>without any intervening
white space characters</em>. This is important, so that the command line
parser might discern that the text following option is its argument,
not the next command line parameter. For example, if option <samp>-d</samp>
took an optional argument, then <samp>-dname</samp> would mean the option
with its argument (<samp>name</samp> in this case), and <samp>-d name</samp> would
mean the <samp>-d</samp> option without any argument, followed by command
line argument <samp>name</samp>.
</p>
<p>Short options’ letters may be clumped together, but you are not
required to do this. When short options are clumped as a set, use one
(single) dash for them all, e.g. <samp>-cvl</samp> is equivalent to <samp>-c
-v -l</samp>. However, only options that do not take arguments may be
clustered this way. If an option takes an argument, it can only be
the last option in such a cluster, otherwise it would be impossible to
specify the argument for it. Anyway, it is much more readable to
specify such options separated.
</p>
<p>The <em>long</em> option names are probably easier to memorize than
their short counterparts. They consist of two dashes, followed by a
multi-letter option name, which is usually selected to be a mnemonics
for the operation it requests. For example, <samp>--verbose</samp> is a
long option that increases the verbosity of a utility. In addition,
long option names can abbreviated, provided that such an abbreviation
is unique among the options understood by a given utility. For
example, if a utility takes options <samp>--foreground</samp> and
<samp>--forward</samp>, then the shortest possible abbreviations for these
options are <samp>--fore</samp> and <samp>--forw</samp>, correspondingly. If
you try to use <samp>--for</samp>, the utility will abort and inform you
that the abbreviation you use is ambiguous, so it is not clear which
of the options you intended to use.
</p>
<p>Long options which require arguments take those arguments following
the option name. There are two ways of specifying a mandatory
argument. It can be separated from the option name either by an equal
sign, or by any amount of white space characters. For example, if the
<samp>--file</samp> option requires an argument, and you wish to supply
<samp>name</samp> as its argument, then you can do so using any of the
following notations: <samp>--file=name</samp> or <samp>--file name</samp>.
</p>
<p>In contrast, optional arguments must always be introduced using an
equal sign.
</p>
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Next: <a href="Common-Options.html#Common-Options" accesskey="n" rel="next">Common Options</a>, Up: <a href="command-line.html#command-line" accesskey="u" rel="up">command line</a> [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Function-Index.html#Function-Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
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