What is -h vs --help in Linux command?¶
-h vs --help
To sum up, the Linux shell provides access to help information for commands through both -h and —help.
However, —help is a more uniform and universal option that may be used with a variety of commands. Shorter and occasionally used, -h can have varying availability and significance.
It is advised to use --help to reliably obtain help information, particularly for commands that are unknown.
[root@rhel ~]# mkdir --help
Usage: mkdir [OPTION]... DIRECTORY...
Create the DIRECTORY(ies), if they do not already exist.
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
-Z set SELinux security context of each created directory
to the default type
--context[=CTX] like -Z, or if CTX is specified then set the SELinux
or SMACK security context to CTX
--help display this help and exit
--version output version information and exit
GNU coreutils online help: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/mkdir>
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) mkdir invocation'
[root@rhel ~]#
8 Ways To Get Help On The Linux Shell
hostname -h
hostname --help
man
info
apropos
whatis
dpkg -S