• @barsoap@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        41 year ago

        tar -xf is not really special combining short options isn’t uncommon.

        Where tar is nonstandard is that you can leave out the -, tar xf is actually how POSIX specifies it. And we’ve kinda come full circle on that one with many modern utilities using a command syntax, you can read tar xf as “tar extract file” just as you can read git pull as, well, “git pull”.

        If you want to see a standard command with truly non-standard syntax have a look at dd.

    • @sonnenzeit@feddit.de
      link
      fedilink
      6
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Many do as it’s considered good practice, but it’s not guaranteed, it just depends on the individual command (program). Usually you can use the --help option to see all the options, so for instance tar --help.

    • @Zangoose@lemmy.one
      link
      fedilink
      41 year ago

      Most commands will have expanded arguments started with 2 dashes that usually look like ‘–verbose-name-of-option’, they’re usually listed in the man page/documentation along with the abbreviated letter version