What is the first semicolon in `addCommandAlias` method used for in SBT?

Question

For example, I have to write an alias like this:

addCommandAlias("make-idea", ";updateClassifiers; updateSbtClassifiers; gen-idea sbt-classifiers")

Instead of

addCommandAlias("make-idea", "updateClassifiers; updateSbtClassifiers; gen-idea sbt-classifiers")

If I skip the first semicolon, sbt will complain.. Does anyone have ideas about what does the first ; in the second argument of addCommandAlias do?

Answer 1

This is just sbt's syntax to specify multiple commands. This is normal sbt CLI behavior and is not specific to addCommandAlias.

The same happens in the sbt shell:

sbt> updateClassifiers; updateSbtClassifiers; gen-idea sbt-classifiers
[error] Expected ID character
// etc.

sbt> ; updateClassifiers; updateSbtClassifiers; gen-idea sbt-classifiers
// as expected