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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.

CONFORMING TO

       getopt():
              POSIX.2 and POSIX.1-2001, 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.)

BUGS

       The POSIX.2  specification  of  getopt()  has  a  technical  error  described  in  POSIX.2
       Interpretation  150.   The  GNU  implementation  (and  probably all other implementations)
       implements the correct behavior rather than that specified.

EXAMPLE

       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; optind=%d\n", flags, tfnd, 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);
       }

       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

       getsubopt(3)

COLOPHON

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