GETOPT(1)                DOMAIN/IX SYS5                 GETOPT(1)



NAME
     getopt - parse command options

USAGE
     set - - `getopt optstring $*`

DESCRIPTION
     Getopt breaks up options in command lines for easy parsing
     by shell procedures, and for checking for legal options.
     Optstring is a string of recognized option letters.  See
     getopt(3C) for more information.  If a letter is followed by
     a colon, the option is expected to have an argument which
     may or may not be separated from it by white space.

     The special option represented by two subsequent dashes (-
     -) delimits the end of the options.  If you use it expli-
     citly, getopt recognizes it; otherwise, getopt generates it.
     In either case, this special option is placed at the end of
     the list of options.

     The shell's positional parameters ($1 $2 ...) are reset so
     that each option is preceded by a dash (-) and is in its own
     positional parameter.  Each option argument is also parsed
     into its own positional parameter.

EXAMPLE
     The following code fragment shows how you might process the
     arguments for a command that can take the options a or b, as
     well as the option o, which requires an argument:

          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:







Printed 12/4/86                                          GETOPT-1

GETOPT(1)                DOMAIN/IX SYS5                 GETOPT(1)



          cmd -aoarg file file
          cmd -a -o arg file file
          cmd -oarg -a file file
          cmd -a -oarg - - file file

DIAGNOSTICS
     Getopt prints an error message on the standard error when it
     encounters an option letter not included in optstring.

RELATED INFORMATION
     sh(1), getopt(3C).










































GETOPT-2                                          Printed 12/4/86