Constructing SU Commands

SU commands consist of one or more program names, associated parameters, and data input and output.

SU Parameters

Each SU program has its own set of required and optional parameters. The best way to see what is required is to use the program self-documentation.

The parameters for ALL SU programs consist of name=value, where name is the name of a parameter, and value is the value you are assigning to that parameter. No spaces in name=value are permitted. Some parameters have multiple values, separated by commas, e.g. parm1=a,b,c. No spaces in name=value1,value2,value3… are permitted.

Almost all SU programs allow certain default values for one or more parameters. When you read a self-doc the values appearing for the optional parameters are the defaults.

SU Commands

An SU command can have the parameters and data IO for a program in any order, as long as all the parameters and IO for a given program occur between the program name and the next program name.

The first item on any command must be a valid program name.

Using the UNIX Backslash Character

When building an SU workflow, statements that contain lots of pipes and programs can get quite long.

Use of backslash ( \ ) to keep scripts to a reasonable line width improves readability and reduces errors.

You can put a \ almost anywhere in a command, but the best place is in place of a space.