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NAME

       getopt, getopt_long, getopt_long_only, optarg, optind, opterr, optopt - Parse command-line
       options

LIBRARY

       Standard C library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS

       #include <unistd.h>

       int getopt(int argc, char *argv[],
                  const char *optstring);

       extern char *optarg;
       extern int optind, opterr, optopt;

       #include <getopt.h>

       int getopt_long(int argc, char *argv[],
                  const char *optstring,
                  const struct option *longopts, int *longindex);
       int getopt_long_only(int argc, char *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.   A  legitimate  option
       character  is  any  visible one byte ascii(7) character (for which isgraph(3) would return
       nonzero) that is not '-', ':', or ';'.  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 scanning 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 '+' is not the
       first character of optstring, it is  treated  as  a  normal  option.   If  POSIXLY_CORRECT
       behaviour  is  required in this case optstring will contain two '+' symbols.  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.

       While processing the option list, getopt() can detect two kinds of errors: (1)  an  option
       character  that was not specified in optstring and (2) a missing option argument (i.e., an
       option at the end of the command line without an  expected  argument).   Such  errors  are
       handled and reported as follows:

       •  By  default,  getopt()  prints an error message on standard error, places the erroneous
          option character in optopt, and returns '?' as the function result.

       •  If the caller has set the global variable opterr to zero, then getopt() does not  print
          an  error message.  The caller can determine that there was an error by testing whether
          the function return value is '?'.  (By default, opterr has a nonzero value.)

       •  If the first character (following any optional '+' or '-' described above) of optstring
          is a colon (':'), then getopt() likewise does not print an error message.  In addition,
          it returns ':' instead of '?' to indicate a missing option argument.  This  allows  the
          caller to distinguish the two different types of errors.

   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) 2.01, but the support remains in glibc.

ATTRIBUTES

       For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7).

       ┌─────────────────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────────────┐
       │InterfaceAttributeValue                                         │
       ├─────────────────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────┤
       │getopt(), getopt_long(), │ Thread safety │ MT-Unsafe race:getopt env                     │
       │getopt_long_only()       │               │                                               │
       └─────────────────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────────────────────────────────────┘

VERSIONS

       POSIX specifies that the argv array argument should be const, but these functions  permute
       its elements unless the environment variable POSIXLY_CORRECT is set.  const is used in the
       actual prototype to be compatible with other systems; however, this page doesn't show  the
       qualifier, to avoid confusing readers.

STANDARDS

       getopt()
              POSIX.1-2008.

       getopt_long()
       getopt_long_only()
              GNU.

              The use of '+' and '-' in optstring is a GNU extension.

HISTORY

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

       On  some  older  implementations, getopt() was declared in <stdio.h>.  SUSv1 permitted the
       declaration to appear in either <unistd.h> or <stdio.h>.  POSIX.1-1996 marked the  use  of
       <stdio.h>  for  this  purpose as LEGACY.  POSIX.1-2001 does not require the declaration to
       appear in <stdio.h>.

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.)

       Command-line  arguments  are  parsed  in  strict order meaning that an option requiring an
       argument will consume the next argument,  regardless  of  whether  that  argument  is  the
       correctly  specified  option  argument or simply the next option (in the scenario the user
       mis-specifies the command line).  For example, if optstring is specified as "1n:" and  the
       user specifies the command line arguments incorrectly as prog -n -1, the -n option will be
       given the optarg value "-1", and the -1  option  will  be  considered  to  have  not  been
       specified.

EXAMPLES

   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 <stdio.h>
       #include <stdlib.h>
       #include <unistd.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 <getopt.h>
       #include <stdio.h>     /* for printf */
       #include <stdlib.h>    /* for exit */

       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)