layout: default title: Syntax permalink: /syntax.html

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Short Options

A short option is a letter (A-Z only, no umlauts etc.) or digit prefixed with a single hyphen. Letters are case-sensitive, i.e., -v and -V are different options. If the option has an argument, it must be separated from the option by a space. The following command invokes program.php with two short options a and 1, where a has the argument foo and 1 has no argument:

$ php program.php -a foo -1

Multiple short options can be clustered together if at most one of them has an argument. In this case that option has to come last; the argument is added as usual. The following command is equivalent to the one above:

$ php program.php -1a foo

A short option with no argument may occur repeatedly. The number of repetitions becomes the option's value. The following two commands are thus equivalent except for the [option modes]({{ site.baseurl }}/options.html) they are valid in:

$ php program.php -vvv  # v must have an optional or no argument
$ php program.php -v 3  # v must have a mandatory or optional argument

Long Options

A long option is a sequence of one or more characters (letters, digits, underscore, hyphen) prefixed with two hyphens. The first character must be a letter or digit. Arguments can be separated from the option by either a space or an equals sign:

$ php program.php --foo --bar baz --quux=1337

Operands

Anything that is not an option or option's argument is called an operand. The following rules determine what is parsed as an operand:

• As soon as a command line argument is encountered that cannot be parsed as an option or as an option's argument, it is parsed as an operand.
• If the command line contains an argument --, all arguments after it are parsed as operands.

In the following commands, -a is parsed as an operand even though it looks like an option.

$ php program.php -- -a

Depending on the definition of -f the following value can either be an operand or the argument of -f:

$ php program.php -f value -o --option

Commands

When using commands for routing the command has to be provided as first operand. Also, no command specific option can be provided in front of the command. The following examples show the basic syntax and a concrete usage:

$ php program.php [common options] <command> [common and specific options] [operands]
$ php program.php -c /path/to/config.inc drop-table --cascade users

Quoting

Parameters, arguments and operands are separated by spaces. You can have spaces in operands and arguments by quoting them in single or double quotes. A double quoted argument can also contain single quotes and vice versa. They can be concatenated like usually in bash scripts.

$ php program.php "this is one operand"
['this is one operand']

$ php program.php "you can concatenate"' by connecting them'
['you can concatenate by connecting them']

$ php program.php 'this can contain "'
['this can contain "']

$ php program.php "this can contain '"
['this can contain \'']

$ php program.php "you may want both '"'"'
['you man want both \'"']