We don't recommend using them for ordinary editing. Arguments that are not options specify files to visit. Emacs visits the specified files while it starts up. You can use options to specify other things, such as the size and position of the Emacs window if you are running it under the X Window System. A few arguments support advanced usage, like running Lisp functions on files in batch mode.
Ordinary options can appear in any order and can be intermixed with file names to visit.
These and file names are called ordinary arguments . Emacs processes all of these in the order they are written. Initial options must come at the beginning of the command line. Menu Ordinary Arguments Arguments to visit files, load libraries, and call functions Initial Options Arguments that must come at the start of the command. Command Example Examples of using command line arguments.