Use Long Options in Scripts Mar 21, 2025

Many command line utilities support short form options (-f) and long form options (--force). Short form is for interactive usage. In scripts, use the long form.

That is, in your terminal, type $ git switch -c my-new-branch

In your release infrastructure script, write

try shell.exec("git fetch origin --quiet", .{});
try shell.exec(
    "git switch --create release-{today} origin/main",
    .{ .today = stdx.DateUTC.now() },
);

Long form options are much more self-explanatory for the reader.