getopt man page on DigitalUNIX

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getopt(1)							     getopt(1)

NAME
       getopt - Parses command line flags and arguments

SYNOPSIS
       getopt format tokens

DESCRIPTION
       The  getopt  command  is	 used to parse a list of tokens using a format
       that specifies expected flags and arguments.  A flag is a single	 ASCII
       letter and, when followed by a : (colon), is expected to take a modify‐
       ing argument that may or may not be separated from it by	 one  or  more
       tabs  or	 spaces.  (You can include multi-byte characters in arguments,
       but not as flag letters.)

       The getopt command completes processing when it has read all tokens  or
       when it encounters the special token -- (double dash).  It then outputs
       the processed flags, a --, and any remaining tokens.

       If a token fails to match a flag, getopt writes a message  to  standard
       error.

NOTES
       In the csh, use the following command to run getopt:

       set argv=`getopt flag_string $*`

EXAMPLES
       The  following  is  an example of the use of getopt in a skeleton shell
       script to parse options:

       #!/bin/sh # parse command line into arguments set -- `getopt a:bc $*` #
       check result of parsing if [ $? != 0 ] then
	       exit 1 fi while [ $1 != -- ] do
	       case $1 in
	       -a)     # set up the -a flag
		       AFLG=1
		       AARG=$2
		       shift;;
	       -b)     # set up the -b flag
		       BFLG=1;;
	       -c)     # set up the -c flag
		       CFLG=1;;
	       esac
	       shift   #  next flag done shift	   # skip double dash # now do
       the work .  .  .

       The following are all equivalent arguments to the script:

       -a ARG -b -c -- A B C -a ARG -bc -- A B C -aARG -b -c -- A B C -b -c -a
       ARG -- A B C

SEE ALSO
       Commands:  sh(1)

       Functions:  getopt(3)

								     getopt(1)
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