Running commands 

Pass arguments to a command or task in batch mode 

sbt interprets each command line argument provided to it as a command together with the command’s arguments. Therefore, to run a command that takes arguments in batch mode, quote the command using double quotes, and its arguments. For example,

$ sbt "project X" clean "~ compile"

Provide multiple commands to run consecutively 

Multiple commands can be scheduled at once by prefixing each command with a semicolon. This is useful for specifying multiple commands where a single command string is accepted. For example, the syntax for triggered execution is ~ <command>. To have more than one command run for each triggering, use semicolons. For example, the following runs clean and then compile each time a source file changes:

> ~ ;clean;compile

Read commands from a file 

The < command reads commands from the files provided to it as arguments. Run help < at the sbt prompt for details.

Define an alias for a command or task 

The alias command defines, removes, and displays aliases for commands. Run help alias at the sbt prompt for details.

Example usage:

> alias a=about
> alias
    a = about    
> a
[info] This is sbt ...
> alias a=
> alias
> a
[error] Not a valid command: a ...

Quickly evaluate a Scala expression 

The eval command compiles and runs the Scala expression passed to it as an argument. The result is printed along with its type. For example,

> eval 2+2
4: Int

Variables defined by an eval are not visible to subsequent evals, although changes to system properties persist and affect the JVM that is running sbt. Use the Scala REPL (console and related commands) for full support for evaluating Scala code interactively.