Linux Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too

When I searched the sentence as it is, there was a stack overflow article, and I guess you were looking at the cp command.

So The factor value that was essential for the long syntax option is unconditionally required for the short syntax option, which is cp for example.

Some commands don't work in this format...

cp a.txt b.txt --target-directory

If only this form was allowed...

cp a.txt b.txt --target-directory=/foo/bar

You can't use the same command like this...

cp a.txt b.txt -t

That's how it works.

cp a.txt b.txt -t=/foo/bar