getopt(3)
NAME
getopt, getopt_long, getopt_long_only, optarg, optind, opterr, optopt - Parse command-line options
SYNOPSIS
#include <unistd.h>
int getopt(int argc, char * const argv[],
const char *optstring);
extern char *optarg;
extern int optind, opterr, optopt;
#include <getopt.h>
int getopt_long(int argc, char * const argv[],
const char *optstring,
const struct option *longopts, int *longindex);
int getopt_long_only(int argc, char * const argv[],
const char *optstring,
const struct option *longopts, int *longindex);
Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):
getopt(): _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 2 || _XOPEN_SOURCE
getopt_long(), getopt_long_only(): _GNU_SOURCE
DESCRIPTION
The getopt() function parses the command-line arguments. Its arguments
argc and argv are the argument count and array as passed to the main()
function on program invocation. An element of argv that starts with
'-' (and is not exactly "-" or "--") is an option element. The
characters of this element (aside from the initial '-') are option
characters. If getopt() is called repeatedly, it returns successively
each of the option characters from each of the option elements.
The variable optind is the index of the next element to be processed in
argv. The system initializes this value to 1. The caller can reset it
to 1 to restart scanning of the same argv, or when scanning a new
argument vector.
If getopt() finds another option character, it returns that character,
updating the external variable optind and a static variable nextchar so
that the next call to getopt() can resume the scan with the following
option character or argv-element.
If there are no more option characters, getopt() returns -1. Then
optind is the index in argv of the first argv-element that is not an
option.
optstring is a string containing the legitimate option characters. If
such a character is followed by a colon, the option requires an
argument, so getopt() places a pointer to the following text in the
same argv-element, or the text of the following argv-element, in
optarg. Two colons mean an option takes an optional arg; if there is
text in the current argv-element (i.e., in the same word as the option
name itself, for example, "-oarg"), then it is returned in optarg,
otherwise optarg is set to zero. This is a GNU extension. If
optstring contains W followed by a semicolon, then -W foo is treated as
the long option --foo. (The -W option is reserved by POSIX.2 for
implementation extensions.) This behavior is a GNU extension, not
available with libraries before glibc 2.
By default, getopt() permutes the contents of argv as it scans, so that
eventually all the nonoptions are at the end. Two other modes are also
implemented. If the first character of optstring is '+' or the
environment variable POSIXLY_CORRECT is set, then option processing
stops as soon as a nonoption argument is encountered. If the first
character of optstring is '-', then each nonoption argv-element is
handled as if it were the argument of an option with character code 1.
(This is used by programs that were written to expect options and other
argv-elements in any order and that care about the ordering of the
two.) The special argument "--" forces an end of option-scanning
regardless of the scanning mode.
If getopt() does not recognize an option character, it prints an error
message to stderr, stores the character in optopt, and returns '?'.
The calling program may prevent the error message by setting opterr to
0.
If getopt() finds an option character in argv that was not included in
optstring, or if it detects a missing option argument, it returns '?'
and sets the external variable optopt to the actual option character.
If the first character (following any optional '+' or '-' described
above) of optstring is a colon (':'), then getopt() returns ':' instead
of '?' to indicate a missing option argument. If an error was
detected, and the first character of optstring is not a colon, and the
external variable opterr is nonzero (which is the default), getopt()
prints an error message.
getopt_long() and getopt_long_only()
The getopt_long() function works like getopt() except that it also
accepts long options, started with two dashes. (If the program accepts
only long options, then optstring should be specified as an empty
string (""), not NULL.) Long option names may be abbreviated if the
abbreviation is unique or is an exact match for some defined option. A
long option may take a parameter, of the form --arg=param or --arg
param.
longopts is a pointer to the first element of an array of struct option
declared in <getopt.h> as
struct option {
const char *name;
int has_arg;
int *flag;
int val;
};
The meanings of the different fields are:
name is the name of the long option.
has_arg
is: no_argument (or 0) if the option does not take an argument;
required_argument (or 1) if the option requires an argument; or
optional_argument (or 2) if the option takes an optional
argument.
flag specifies how results are returned for a long option. If flag
is NULL, then getopt_long() returns val. (For example, the
calling program may set val to the equivalent short option
character.) Otherwise, getopt_long() returns 0, and flag points
to a variable which is set to val if the option is found, but
left unchanged if the option is not found.
val is the value to return, or to load into the variable pointed to
by flag.
The last element of the array has to be filled with zeros.
If longindex is not NULL, it points to a variable which is set to the
index of the long option relative to longopts.
getopt_long_only() is like getopt_long(), but '-' as well as "--" can
indicate a long option. If an option that starts with '-' (not "--")
doesn't match a long option, but does match a short option, it is
parsed as a short option instead.
RETURN VALUE
If an option was successfully found, then getopt() returns the option character. If all command-line options have been parsed, then getopt() returns -1. If getopt() encounters an option character that was not in optstring, then '?' is returned. If getopt() encounters an option with a missing argument, then the return value depends on the first character in optstring: if it is ':', then ':' is returned; otherwise '?' is returned. getopt_long() and getopt_long_only() also return the option character when a short option is recognized. For a long option, they return val if flag is NULL, and 0 otherwise. Error and -1 returns are the same as for getopt(), plus '?' for an ambiguous match or an extraneous parameter.
ENVIRONMENT
POSIXLY_CORRECT
If this is set, then option processing stops as soon as a
nonoption argument is encountered.
_<PID>_GNU_nonoption_argv_flags_
This variable was used by bash(1) 2.0 to communicate to glibc
which arguments are the results of wildcard expansion and so
should not be considered as options. This behavior was removed
in bash(1) version 2.01, but the support remains in glibc.
ATTRIBUTES
For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7). Interface Attribute Value getopt(), getopt_long(), Thread safety MT-Unsafe race:getopt env getopt_long_only()
CONFORMING TO
getopt():
POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008, and POSIX.2, provided the
environment variable POSIXLY_CORRECT is set. Otherwise, the
elements of argv aren't really const, because we permute them.
We pretend they're const in the prototype to be compatible with
other systems.
The use of '+' and '-' in optstring is a GNU extension.
On some older implementations, getopt() was declared in
<stdio.h>. SUSv1 permitted the declaration to appear in either
<unistd.h> or <stdio.h>. POSIX.1-2001 marked the use of
<stdio.h> for this purpose as LEGACY. POSIX.1-2001 does not
allow the declaration to appear in <stdio.h>.
getopt_long() and getopt_long_only():
These functions are GNU extensions.
NOTES
A program that scans multiple argument vectors, or rescans the same vector more than once, and wants to make use of GNU extensions such as '+' and '-' at the start of optstring, or changes the value of POSIXLY_CORRECT between scans, must reinitialize getopt() by resetting optind to 0, rather than the traditional value of 1. (Resetting to 0 forces the invocation of an internal initialization routine that rechecks POSIXLY_CORRECT and checks for GNU extensions in optstring.)
EXAMPLE
getopt()
The following trivial example program uses getopt() to handle two
program options: -n, with no associated value; and -t val, which
expects an associated value.
#include <unistd.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
int
main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
int flags, opt;
int nsecs, tfnd;
nsecs = 0;
tfnd = 0;
flags = 0;
while ((opt = getopt(argc, argv, "nt:")) != -1) {
switch (opt) {
case 'n':
flags = 1;
break;
case 't':
nsecs = atoi(optarg);
tfnd = 1;
break;
default: /* '?' */
fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s [-t nsecs] [-n] name\n",
argv[0]);
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
}
printf("flags=%d; tfnd=%d; nsecs=%d; optind=%d\n",
flags, tfnd, nsecs, optind);
if (optind >= argc) {
fprintf(stderr, "Expected argument after options\n");
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
printf("name argument = %s\n", argv[optind]);
/* Other code omitted */
exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
}
getopt_long()
The following example program illustrates the use of getopt_long() with
most of its features.
#include <stdio.h> /* for printf */
#include <stdlib.h> /* for exit */
#include <getopt.h>
int
main(int argc, char **argv)
{
int c;
int digit_optind = 0;
while (1) {
int this_option_optind = optind ? optind : 1;
int option_index = 0;
static struct option long_options[] = {
{"add", required_argument, 0, 0 },
{"append", no_argument, 0, 0 },
{"delete", required_argument, 0, 0 },
{"verbose", no_argument, 0, 0 },
{"create", required_argument, 0, 'c'},
{"file", required_argument, 0, 0 },
{0, 0, 0, 0 }
};
c = getopt_long(argc, argv, "abc:d:012",
long_options, &option_index);
if (c == -1)
break;
switch (c) {
case 0:
printf("option %s", long_options[option_index].name);
if (optarg)
printf(" with arg %s", optarg);
printf("\n");
break;
case '0':
case '1':
case '2':
if (digit_optind != 0 && digit_optind != this_option_optind)
printf("digits occur in two different argv-elements.\n");
digit_optind = this_option_optind;
printf("option %c\n", c);
break;
case 'a':
printf("option a\n");
break;
case 'b':
printf("option b\n");
break;
case 'c':
printf("option c with value '%s'\n", optarg);
break;
case 'd':
printf("option d with value '%s'\n", optarg);
break;
case '?':
break;
default:
printf("?? getopt returned character code 0%o ??\n", c);
}
}
if (optind < argc) {
printf("non-option ARGV-elements: ");
while (optind < argc)
printf("%s ", argv[optind++]);
printf("\n");
}
exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
}
SEE ALSO
getopt(1), getsubopt(3)
COLOPHON
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