This is what the cassandra commandline looks ilke when you install the package

OMG.md

If you try to break out what the various cassandra startup scripts end up running, this is what you end up with, broken out with some backslashes:

java -ea \
     -javaagent:/usr/share/cassandra/lib/jamm-0.2.5.jar \
     -XX:+CMSClassUnloadingEnabled \
     -XX:+UseThreadPriorities \
     -XX:ThreadPriorityPolicy=42 \
     -Xms1024M \
     -Xmx1024M \
     -Xmn100M \
     -XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError \
     -Xss256k \
     -XX:StringTableSize=1000003 \
     -XX:+UseParNewGC \
     -XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC \
     -XX:+CMSParallelRemarkEnabled \
     -XX:SurvivorRatio=8 \
     -XX:MaxTenuringThreshold=1 \
     -XX:CMSInitiatingOccupancyFraction=75 \
     -XX:+UseCMSInitiatingOccupancyOnly \
     -XX:+UseTLAB \
     -XX:+UseCondCardMark \
     -Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true \
     -Dcassandra.jmxl.ocal.port=7199 \
     -XX:+DisableExplicitGC \
     -ea \
     -javaagent:/usr/share/cassandra/lib/jamm-0.2.5.jar \
     -XX:+CMSClassUnloadingEnabled \
     -XX:+UseThreadPriorities \
     -XX:ThreadPriorityPolicy=42 \
     -Xms1024M -Xmx1024M \
     -Xmn100M \
     -XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError \
     -Xss256k \
     -XX:StringTableSize=1000003 \
     -XX:+UseParNewGC \
     -XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC \
     -XX:+CMSParallelRemarkEnabled \
     -XX:SurvivorRatio=8 \
     -XX:MaxTenuringThreshold=1 \
     -XX:CMSInitiatingOccupancyFraction=75
     -XX:+UseCMSInitiatingOccupancyOnly \
     -XX:+UseTLAB \
     -XX:+UseCondCardMark \
     -Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true \
     -Dcassandra.jmx.local.port=7199 \
     -XX:+DisableExplicitGC \
     -Dlog4j.configuration=log4j-server.properties \
     -Dlog4j.defaultInitOverride=true \
     -Dcassandra-pidfile=/var/run/cassandra/cassandra.pid \
     -cp /etc/cassandra:/usr/share/cassandra/lib/antlr-3.2.jar:/usr/share/cassandra/lib/commons-cli-1.1.jar:/usr/share/cassandra/lib/commons-codec-1.2.jar:/usr/share/cassandra/lib/commons-lang3-3.1.jar:/usr/share/cassandra/lib/compress-lzf-0.8.4.jar:/usr/share/cassandra/lib/concurrentlinkedhashmap-lru-1.3.jar:/usr/share/cassandra/lib/disruptor-3.0.1.jar:/usr/share/cassandra/lib/guava-15.0.jar:/usr/share/cassandra/lib/high-scale-lib-1.1.2.jar:/usr/share/cassandra/lib/jackson-core-asl-1.9.2.jar:/usr/share/cassandra/lib/jackson-mapper-asl-1.9.2.jar:/usr/share/cassandra/lib/jamm-0.2.5.jar:/usr/share/cassandra/lib/jbcrypt-0.3m.jar:/usr/share/cassandra/lib/jline-1.0.jar:/usr/share/cassandra/lib/json-simple-1.1.jar:/usr/share/cassandra/lib/libthrift-0.9.1.jar:/usr/share/cassandra/lib/log4j-1.2.16.jar:/usr/share/cassandra/lib/lz4-1.2.0.jar:/usr/share/cassandra/lib/metrics-core-2.2.0.jar:/usr/share/cassandra/lib/netty-3.6.6.Final.jar:/usr/share/cassandra/lib/reporter-config-2.1.0.jar:/usr/share/cassandra/lib/servlet-api-2.5-20081211.jar:/usr/share/cassandra/lib/slf4j-api-1.7.2.jar:/usr/share/cassandra/lib/slf4j-log4j12-1.7.2.jar:/usr/share/cassandra/lib/snakeyaml-1.11.jar:/usr/share/cassandra/lib/snappy-java-1.0.5.jar:/usr/share/cassandra/lib/snaptree-0.1.jar:/usr/share/cassandra/lib/super-csv-2.1.0.jar:/usr/share/cassandra/lib/thrift-server-0.3.7.jar:/usr/share/cassandra/apache-cassandra-2.0.14.jar:/usr/share/cassandra/apache-cassandra-thrift-2.0.14.jar:/usr/share/cassandra/apache-cassandra.jar:/usr/share/cassandra/stress.jar:/usr/share/java/jna.jar: \
     -XX:HeapDumpPath=/var/lib/cassandra/java_1435065430.hprof \
     -XX:ErrorFile=/var/lib/cassandra/hs_err_1435065430.log \
     org.apache.cassandra.service.CassandraDaemon

would_this_be_easier.md

I think this would have the same effect:

java -ea \
     -javaagent:/usr/share/cassandra/lib/jamm-0.2.5.jar \
     -XX:+CMSClassUnloadingEnabled \
     -XX:+UseThreadPriorities \
     -XX:ThreadPriorityPolicy=42 \
     -Xms1024M \
     -Xmx1024M \
     -Xmn100M \
     -XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError \
     -Xss256k \
     -XX:StringTableSize=1000003 \
     -XX:+UseParNewGC \
     -XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC \
     -XX:+CMSParallelRemarkEnabled \
     -XX:SurvivorRatio=8 \
     -XX:MaxTenuringThreshold=1 \
     -XX:CMSInitiatingOccupancyFraction=75 \
     -XX:+UseCMSInitiatingOccupancyOnly \
     -XX:+UseTLAB \
     -XX:+UseCondCardMark \
     -Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true \
     -Dcassandra.jmxl.ocal.port=7199 \
     -XX:+DisableExplicitGC \
     -Dlog4j.configuration=log4j-server.properties \
     -Dlog4j.defaultInitOverride=true \
     -Dcassandra-pidfile=/var/run/cassandra/cassandra.pid \
     -cp /etc/cassandra:/usr/share/cassandra/lib/*:/usr/share/cassandra/*:/usr/share/java/jna.jar: \
     -XX:HeapDumpPath=/var/lib/cassandra/java_1435065430.hprof \
     -XX:ErrorFile=/var/lib/cassandra/hs_err_1435065430.log \
     org.apache.cassandra.service.CassandraDaemon