2.1.2 @filename arguments

Any command line argument that has the form ‘@filename’ will be replaced with the contents of the named file. That contents should be a list of arguments, with one argument per line. This argument processing is done recursively, so that some of these arguments may also have the form @file.

Fairly obviously, a file named in an ‘@file’ argument should never include itself, either directly or indirectly. The compiler will generate an error message for any file that violates this rule.

Since ‘@filename’ arguments are just shorthand for a list of other arguments, in the rest of this user guide we will usually classify all command line arguments as either option or non-option arguments, with the latter including only file names and module names (in the absence of the --make option).