When supplying an argument to a command, the option associated with the argument can be omitted if
· All arguments supplied with the command are entered in the order in which they appear in the command's synopsis.
· Arguments are supplied for all options that precede the option to be omitted.
· All options that precede the option to be omitted accept only a single argument.
· No options, either those that accept an argument or those that do not, are supplied before the option to be omitted.
In the case where two options are presented in { | } (braces separated by a vertical bar), the option associated with the first argument can be omitted if that argument is provided; however, the option associated with the second argument is required if that argument is provided.
If it must be specified, an option can be abbreviated to the shortest possible form that distinguishes it from other options of the command. For example, the -server option found in many DFS commands can typically be omitted or abbreviated to be simply -s.
It is also valid to abbreviate a command name to the shortest form that still distinguishes it from the other command names in the suite. For example, it is acceptable to shorten the bos install command to bos i because no other command names in the bos command suite begin with the letter "i." However, there are three bos commands that begin with the letter "g": bos getdates, bos getlog, and bos getrestart. To remain unambiguous, they can be abbreviated to bos getd, bos getl, and bos getr.
The following examples illustrate three acceptable ways to enter the same bos getlog command.
Complete command:
$ bos getlog -server /.../abc.com/hosts/fs1 -file BosLog
Abbreviated command name and abbreviated options:
$ bos getl -s /.../abc.com/hosts/fs1 -f BosLog
Abbreviated command name and omitted options:
$ bos getl /.../abc.com/hosts/fs1 BosLog
Note: The dfs_login and dfs_logout commands provided with the DFS/NFS Secure Gateway do not provide the shortcuts and help available with other DFS commands. See the reference pages for these two commands for information about using them.