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<title>Command Line Processing Model and Terminology</title>
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<h1>Introduction</h1>
<p>
Command line is probably the most universal way of passing information from
caller to the program. Concept of a command line is part of most operating
systems and programming languages including C and C++. However model and
terminology for command line processing vary greatly among different
systems.</p>
<p>
<a href="http://unix.org/online.html">Single UNIX Specification</a> contains
<a href="http://opengroup.org/onlinepubs/007904975/basedefs/xbd_chap12.html">
Utility Argument Syntax Conventions and Guidelines</a> which document basic
terminology for command line processing. Single UNIX Specification model is
a "common denominator" for different UNIX implementations. It is somewhat
minimal and targets system utilities rather than a wide spectrum of
applications. Another de-facto command line processing model is
<a href="http://gnu.org/prep/standards_18.html"> GNU Standard for Command
Line Interfaces</a> which generally encourages conformance to the Single UNIX
Specification but adds few extensions and uses different terminology.</p>
<p>
The idea behind this document is to establish terminology and complete model
for command line processing. Terms translation between this document, Single
UNIX Specification and GNU Standard for Command Line Interfaces is provided
in Appendix A.</p>
<h1>Model and Terminology</h1>
<p>
<em>Command line</em> is an array of character strings and not just
a string with spaces between words as some people tend to think.</p>
<p>
Each string in a command line array is referred to as <em>argument
</em>. First argument usually contains a string that refers to an executable.
</p>
<p>
Interpretation of arguments is completely up to a program logic however
conventions exist that vary among different systems. Usually groups of
arguments are translated into a higher-level objects such as commands,
options, and operands. These objects form a model for command line processing.
All of them are defined below.</p>
<p>
<em>Command</em> is usually a word, or a single letter that represents
a command to the program logic. Neither Single UNIX Specification nor GNU
Standard for Command Line Interfaces has the notion of a command. Other terms
for command include <em>action</em> and <em>function</em>. Command is usually
(but not necessarily) the first argument after executable name. Here are few
examples:</p>
<p><code>tar x</code></p>
<p class="indent">
Here we have a one letter command <code>'x'</code> (extract). In GNU tar
manual it is called <em>functional letter</em>.</p>
<p><code>tar xvf</code></p>
<p class="indent">
Here we have three commands encoded as a single letter each. Actually
semantically only <code>'x'</code> is a command while <code>'v'</code>
(verbose) and <code>'f'</code> (read from a file) are options.</p>
<p><code>openssl req</code></p>
<p class="indent">
Here we have a word command <code>'req'</code> (operations with certificate
requests).</p>
<p><code>cvs checkout foo</code></p>
<p class="indent">
Here we have a word command <code>'checkout'</code> and command operand
<code>foo</code>.</p>
<p><code>tar --help</code></p>
<p class="indent">
Even though <code>'--help'</code> is usually considered to be an option
semantically it is a command.</p>
<p>
<em>Option</em> consists of <em>option name</em> and optionally
one or more <em>option values</em>. Options are usually optional.
Non-optional options are usually better represented by commands or operands.
</p>
<p>Option name usually takes up one argument. Option names usually start with
a prefix (e.g. <code>'--compile-only'</code>, <code>'-c'</code> or <code>'/c'
</code>). This helps distinguish them from commands and operands. Option name
may have aliases (e.g. for option name <code>'--output-dir'</code> there could
be an <code>'-o'</code> alias).</p>
<p>
Option without a value is alway optional and represents an option with implied
binary value (e.g. {0, 1} or {false, true} etc.). Such option is sometimes
called <em>flag</em>.</p>
<p>
Option can be associated with a program or a command. Thus the concept of
option can be further refined to <em>program option</em> and <em>
command option</em>. Program option alters behavior of the program as a
whole while command option is only affecting particular command.</p>
<p>Following are some examples:</p>
<p><code>g++ -o hello.o hello.cpp</code></p>
<p class="indent">
Here we have an option with name <code>'-o'</code> which has a value
<code>'hello.o'</code>. <code>'hello.cpp'</code> is an operand.</p>
<p><code>ls -l</code></p>
<p class="indent">Here we have a flag with name <code>'-l'</code>.</p>
<p>
<code>foo --bar=a,b,c</code><br/>
<code>foo -b "a,b,c"</code><br/>
<code>foo /baz a b c</code>
</p>
<p class="indent">
Here we have a more elaborate example of a multi-format option. It has
a name <code>'--bar'</code> and two aliases: <code>'-b'</code> and
<code>'/baz'</code>. It also has three values (in our case they are
<code>'a'</code>, <code>'b'</code>, and <code>'c'</code>).</p>
<p><code>cvs -z 6 checkout -P foo</code></p>
<p class="indent">
Here we have a program option with name <code>'-z'</code> and value
<code>'6'</code> (set compression level to be 6). <code>'checkout'</code>
is a command. <code>-P</code> is a command flag (prune empty directories).
<code>'foo'</code> is a command operand.</p>
<p>
<em>operand</em> usually represents an input value or a parameter.
Operands can be mandatory or optional. Interpretation of operands is usually
application-specific.</p>
<p>
Same as with option the concept of operand can be further refined to
<em>program operand</em> and <em>command operand</em>.</p>
<h1>Appendix A: Terms Translation</h1>
<table summary="Terms Translation"
border="1"
cellspacing="0"
cellpadding="4"
class="center">
<col width="34%" />
<col width="33%" />
<col width="33%" />
<tr>
<th>Term</th>
<th>Single UNIX Specification</th>
<th>GNU</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>command line</td>
<td>command line</td>
<td>command line</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>argument</td>
<td>argument</td>
<td>argument</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>command</td>
<td>--</td>
<td>--</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>option</td>
<td>--</td>
<td>option</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>option name</td>
<td>option</td>
<td>name</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>option value</td>
<td>option-argument</td>
<td>--</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>program option</td>
<td>--</td>
<td>--</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>command option</td>
<td>--</td>
<td>--</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>operand</td>
<td>operand</td>
<td>argument</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>program operand</td>
<td>--</td>
<td>--</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>command operand</td>
<td>--</td>
<td>--</td>
</tr>
</table>
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