1. Command Syntax: how a command must be entered to run (correctly).

2. Basic Form:
	        space,tab  	     space,tab
$ Command-name [whitespace] options [whitespace] parameters
		            0 or more	 	 0 or more

A Command-name is a special word that represents an executable file 
or built-in (to memory) program that the Shell will look for in order 
to launch.

For most Unix Systems, an option parameter should start with a dash (-) 
or plus (+) followed by a letter or a digit.  More than one letter or 
digit after a dash usually means multiple options are being specified or 
it is a full word option.

On Linux versions of Unix, an option parameter can also start with 2 dashes
(--) followed by a whole word, such as help or version. These are called
Long Options or Word options.

A parameter (or an argument) is a word that gives information for the command 
to work with (or on), such as a file name.

3. New command: questions for yourself to ask: 
	¥ What does the command do?
	¥ How do I use the options?
	¥ How do I use the parameters?

4. Example: ls command
	good:					   no good:
	-----					   --------
	$ ls					   $ ls -lz
	$ ls -a	[Works on Linux but not others]--> $ ls file1 -la file2
	$ ls -l					   $ -l ls file3
	$ ls -la				   $ file3 -al ls
	$ ls file1
	$ ls file1 file2 file3
	$ ls -l file1 dir1
	$ ls -l -a file1 dir1

5. On-line manual shows syntax for ls as:
	ls [-aAcCdfFgilLqrRstu1] [filename...]  		or 
	ls [--option ] [filename...]  where option may be: 
   help, version, among many others.

6. Run each of the examples in item 4.  Which ones on the left
   give error messages? 

Questions? Robert Katz: rkatz@ned.highline.edu
Last Update September 20, 2005