Is there a “standard” format for command line/shell help text?

Question

If not, is there a de facto standard? Basically I\'m writing a command line help text like so:

usage: app_name [opti         


        

Answer 1

We are running Linux, a mostly POSIX-compliant OS. POSIX standards it should be: Utility Argument Syntax.

• An option is a hyphen followed by a single alphanumeric character, like this: -o.
• An option may require an argument (which must appear immediately after the option); for example, -o argument or -oargument.
• Options that do not require arguments can be grouped after a hyphen, so, for example, -lst is equivalent to -t -l -s.
• Options can appear in any order; thus -lst is equivalent to -tls.
• Options can appear multiple times.
• Options precede other nonoption arguments: -lst nonoption.
• The -- argument terminates options.
• The - option is typically used to represent one of the standard input streams.