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Development Tools Introduction to the Terminal The Command Shell Command Arguments

Posted by Delicia Wharton
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Delicia Wharton
UX Design Techdegree Student 11,098 Points

Why do the Command Arguments exist?

I'm having trouble wrapping my head around the concept of this "command arguments" thing. Like I don't understand why it is there, and it's making it hard for me to absorb the information.. Are the Command Arguments there to justify the existence of a command line's content?

2 Answers

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,172 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,172 Points

There are two parts to a command line, the command itself and the command arguments. They work together to perform the desired task.

Using an example from the video, if you give the command "cat", the system knows that you want to see the contents of a file .. but which one? So the argument "statue.txt" is the name of the file that the system can find. So when used together, the entire command "cat statue.txt" causes the contents of that file to appear on the screen.

Delicia Wharton
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.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree
Delicia Wharton
UX Design Techdegree Student 11,098 Points
Delicia Wharton
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree
Delicia Wharton
UX Design Techdegree Student 11,098 Points

Thank you so much! I ended up watching the videos again a few times and practiced the cat, ls, and cd commands on my computer. I really appreciate it and I’m glad it’s clearer now