getopt(1)							     getopt(1)

Name
       getopt - parse command options

Syntax
       set - - getopt optstring $∗

Description
       The  command  breaks  up	 options  in command lines for easy parsing by
       Shell procedures and checks for legal options.	The  optstring	option
       letters	are  recognized if a letter is followed by a colon, the option
       expects an argument which may or may not be separated from it by	 white
       space.  For further information, see

       The  special  option,  specified by two minus signs (- -), delimits the
       end of the options.  If the delimiters are used explicitly,  recognizes
       it;  otherwise,	generates it.  In either case, places the delimiter at
       the end of the options.	The positional parameters ($1 $2 ...)  of  the
       shell  are reset so that each option is preceded by a single minus sign
       (-) and is in its own positional parameter;  each  option  argument  is
       also parsed into its own positional parameter.

Examples
       The following code fragment shows how you can process the arguments for
       a command that can take the options a or b, as well as  the  option  o,
       which requires an argument:
       #!/bin/sh5
       set -- getopt abo: $∗
       if [ $? != 0 ]
       then
	    echo $USAGE
	    exit 2
       fi
       for i in $∗
       do
	    case $i in
	    -a ⎪ -b)  FLAG=$i; shift;;
	    -o)	 OARG=$2; shift 2;;
	    --)	 shift; break;;
	    esac
       done
       This code accepts any of the following as equivalent:
       cmd -aoarg file file
       cmd -a -o arg file file
       cmd -oarg -a file file
       cmd -a -oarg -- file file

Diagnostics
       The  command  prints  an	 error	message	 on the standard error when it
       encounters an option letter not included in optstring.

See Also
       sh5(1), getopt(3)

								     getopt(1)

Vote for polarhome