The command line arguments are made up of options, option-arguments, commands, and command-arguments.
| Term | Explanation |
|---|---|
| option | an argument which is a - followed by a character, or -- followed by a word (or hyphenated words), like -s or --short |
| option-argument | some options can take an argument |
| command | a program or command can have subcommands |
| command-argument | argument for the command (and not an option or option-argument) |
For example:
my-utility command -o --option option-argument command-argument-1 command-argument-2In other references options are sometimes called flags, and command-arguments are sometimes called positional arguments or operands.