Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide
--recursive
Recursive: Operate recursively (down directory tree).
•
-v
--verbose
Verbose: output additional information to
stdout
or
stderr
.
•
-z
--compress
Compress: apply compression (usually gzip).
However:
• In tar and gawk:
-f
--file
File: filename follows.
• In cp, mv, rm:
-f
--force
Force: force overwrite of target file(s).
Many UNIX and Linux utilities deviate from this "standard," so it is dangerous to assume that a given option will behave in a standard way. Always check the man page for the command in question when in doubt.
A complete table of recommended options for the GNU utilities is available at the GNU standards page.
G.2. Bash Command-Line Options
Bash itself has a number of command-line options. Here are some of the more useful ones.
•
-c
Read commands from the following string and assign any arguments to the positional parameters.
bash$
bash -c 'set a b c d; IFS="+-;"; echo "$*"'
a+b+c+d
•
-r
Appendix G. Command-Line Options 806
Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide
--restricted
Runs the shell, or a script, in restricted mode.
•
--posix
Forces Bash to conform to POSIX mode.
•
--version
Display Bash version information and exit.
•
--
End of options. Anything further on the command line is an argument, not an option.
Appendix G. Command-Line Options 807
