Command option processing

Some pdadmin command options use specific symbols or characters. Some pdadmin command options begin with a hyphen (-). For example, the following command uses the -gsouser option:

pdadmin sec_master> user import -gsouser mlucaser cn=mlucaser,o=Tivoli,c=US

The pdadmin command interprets any token beginning with a hyphen as a command option, even if the hyphen is placed within double quotation marks. Occasionally, we might want a token that begins with a - to be interpreted as an argument rather than as a command option. For example, we might want to name the user -mlucaser or "-mlucaser" by entering:

pdadmin sec_master> user import -gsouser -mlucaser cn=mlucaser,o=tivoli,c=us

In this example, the first -gsouser option in the command is still processed. However, because the user name token begins with a hyphen, the user name would be interpreted as a command option. The command would fail because the —mlucaser command option does not exist.

Specify the single hyphen character to turn off the interpretation of the optional arguments, by the pdadmin command. Following the single hyphen character, -mlucaser is now interpreted as the user name. For example:

pdadmin sec_master> user import -gsouser - -mlucaser cn=mlucaser,o=Tivoli,c=us

Options on the command line are position-independent. We can change the order so that all tokens that begin with a hyphen, which are not command options, follow the single hyphen character.

Parent topic: pdadmin commands