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--help – Display Usage Information
Many executable programs support a “--help” option that displays a description of the command's supported syntax and options. For example:
[me@linuxbox ~]$ mkdir --help
Usage: mkdir [OPTION] DIRECTORY...
Create the DIRECTORY(ies), if they do not already exist.
-Z, --context=CONTEXT (SELinux) set security context to CONTEXT Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.
-m, --mode=MODE set file mode (as in chmod), not a=rwx – umask
-p, --parents no error if existing, make parent directories as needed
-v, --verbose print a message for each created directory
--help display this help and exit
--version output version information and exit
Report bugs to <[email protected]>.
[me@linuxbox ~]$ mkdir --help
Usage: mkdir [OPTION] DIRECTORY...
Create the DIRECTORY(ies), if they do not already exist.
-Z, --context=CONTEXT (SELinux) set security context to CONTEXT Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.
-m, --mode=MODE set file mode (as in chmod), not a=rwx – umask
-p, --parents no error if existing, make parent directories as needed
-v, --verbose print a message for each created directory
--help display this help and exit
--version output version information and exit
Report bugs to <[email protected]>.
Some programs don't support the “--help” option, but try it anyway. Often it results in an error message that will reveal the same usage information.