It means nothing.

It is just one of many conventions in the way you specify parameters.

Specifically, perl "auto-quotes" the name when used at the left side of the "=>" operator, so the name essentially is "-host", "-user" etc..., and perl does not try to understand the contents.

How a particular name is interpreted is left to the recipient of the parameters.

     Syntactic sugar causes cancer of the semicolon.        --Alan Perlis

In reply to Re: beginner - hyphen before a parameter by NetWallah
in thread beginner - hyphen before a parameter by Anonymous Monk

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