what does "-n" mean in a terminal command?

I found the following command online:

 conda create -n tensorflow_env tensorflow

What does the "-n" mean in this command?

2 Answers

From the documentation:

usage: conda create [-h] [--clone ENV] [-n ENVIRONMENT | -p PATH] [-c CHANNEL] [--use-local] [--override-channels] [--strict-channel-priority] [--no-channel-priority] [--no-deps | --only-deps] [--no-pin] [--copy] [-C] [-k] [--offline] [-d] [--json] [-q] [-v] [-y] [--download-only] [--show-channel-urls] [--file FILE] [--no-default-packages] [package_spec [package_spec ...]]

...

-n, --name Name of environment.

Every Linux command has a different set of arguments or flags - it's entirely up to the program. Some programs uses short flags like -n, some use long flags like --thingy, some use both, and some don't use "flags" at all like dd if=foo of=bar.

A common convention is for programs to list out their options when passed --help or -h, and many programs provide a Manual Page (manpage) which you can read using man name_of_command, although it looks like conda may not have one.