What's the difference between one-dash and two-dashes for command prompt parameters?

Posted by Pacerier on Super User See other posts from Super User or by Pacerier
Published on 2011-12-28T07:02:51Z Indexed on 2013/11/03 10:01 UTC
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command-line

I was wondering why is it that some programs requires their command prompt parameters to have two dashes in front whereas some (most) only require one dash in front?

For example most programs look like this: relaxer -dtd toc.xml toc_gr.xml toc_jp.xml

Whereas some programs look like this: xmllint --valid toc.xml --noout

What's the reason that some requires two dashes instead of one? Doesn't it make sense for everyone to stick to one standard (i.e. a single dash will do).

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