oliverdavies.uk/source/_daily_emails/2024-05-23.md

---
title: Why I use long parameter names in scripts
date: 2024-05-23
permalink: daily/2024/05/23/why-i-use-long-parameter-names-in-scripts
tags:
  - software-development
  - bash
  - zsh
  - linux
cta: ~
snippet: |
  Why I use long parameter names in scripts, such as `--force` instead of `-f`.
---

The other day, [I posted about a script I'd written][0] that found the longest commit message in a repository.

As I couldn't find a native way to do this with Git, the script loops over each commit in the repository, calculates its length and stores the length and commit SHA in a file.

The lines in the file are sorted so the longest commit is first.

Whilst I commonly use short parameters, such as `git add -p` when typing commands, in scripts, I prefer to use the equivalent longer parameters, where possible.

For example, in the script, I execute this command to sort the lines:

```bash
sort "${result_file}" --reverse --numeric-sort --output "${result_file}"
```

This could be re-written as:

```bash
sort "${result_file}" -rn -o "${result_file}"
```

Whilst the original is more verbose and longer to type, I prefer its verbosity which makes it easier for me or others to read and understand in the future.

[0]: {{site.url}}/daily/2024/05/21/which-commit-has-the-largest-message