Command line arguments
Command line arguments are passed to command line applications and come in two varieties.
Positional arguments
Positional arguments can be any number of arguments that are separated by a space. If an argument contains a space in it, it must either be escaped or surrounded with quotes
cd ~/workspace
# Escaping whitespace
cd ~/workspace/ian\ weller
cd "~/workspace/ian weller"
# This is technically two positional arguments being passed
echo Hello World
Optional arguments
Arguments that are either prefixed with the short-form - or the long-form
--. Optional arguments usually change the functionality of the command they
are passed to. Short-form optional arguments can be separated out or combined.
ls -a -l
ls -al
# Optional arguments typically come before positional arguments
ls -al ~/workspace
Optional arguments additionally can be passed values.
Multi-line
Longer strings of command line arguments can be split into multiple lines
ls \
-a \
-l