-data (with one dash) is the same as -d ata. One dash says it is a short option, and short options are single-letter. Short options don't need a space to separate the following argument since it is always a single letter we know if there's anything "tacked on".

The long option (with two dashes) has multiple letters and one option can have the same name as the beginning of another so we can't have them specified combined: a long option must be specified with a space before the following argument.

Using -data (with one dash) in any example or documentation is highly confusing.

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** [bugs:#1279] Man Page: POST --data<space><data> space is wrong**
**Status:** open
**Labels:** documentation POST 
**Created:** Thu Sep 12, 2013 10:54 PM UTC by Jerry Krinock
**Last Updated:** Fri Sep 13, 2013 09:54 AM UTC
**Owner:** nobody
In curl version 7.24.0, in Mac OS X 10.8, in the man page, the examples given for the -POST data options: d, -data etc. all have a space between the option and the data.  Example: --data <data>.  When I do this, it doesn't work.  The server gets the data "ata".  I noticed that these three characters were the last three characters in the option "data".  So I tried it without the space, -d<data>, and it worked.
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