DS9 will process each command line option, one at a time, as the last step in the initialization process. Therefore, it is possible to use command line options as a little script. For example, the following command line option is used:
$ds9 -tile foo.fits -cmap Heat -zscale bar.fits -cmap I8
First DS9 is put in tile mode, then foo.fits is loaded. Then the colormap for foo.fits is changed to Heat. Next, a new frame is created and bar.fits is loaded. And finally, the colormap for bar.fits is changed to I8.
align analysis array blink bin cmap colorbar contour coords dss exit fifo fifo_only geometry grid help histequ horzgraph iconify inet_only info invert lower linear ln log magnifier minmax minmaxmode minmaxsample mode mosaicimage mosaicimages mosaic orient panner pixeltable port port_only private raise rass region rotate scale scalemode scalelimits scalescope shm single squared sqrt source tile tilemode title unix unix_only url version vertgraph visual wcs wcsformat z1 zmax zscale zoom