GETOPTS(1)                           SysV                           GETOPTS(1)



NAME
     getopts, getoptcvt - parse command options

SYNOPSIS
     getopts optstring name [arg ...]

     /usr/lib/getoptcvt [-b] file

DESCRIPTION
     getopts is a special command built into the Bourne shell.  It parses
     positional parameters for shell procedures and checks for legal options.
     It supports all applicable rules of the command syntax standard (see
     Rules 3-10, intro(1)).  It should be used in place of the getopt(1)
     command.  (See the WARNING section.)

     optstring must contain the option letters recognized by the command using
     getopts; if a letter is followed by a colon, the option is expected to
     have an argument, or group of arguments, which must be separated from it
     by white space.

     Each time it is invoked, getopts places the next option in the shell
     variable name and the index of the next argument to be processed in the
     shell variable OPTIND.  Whenever the shell or a shell procedure is
     invoked, OPTIND is initialized to 1.

     When an option requires an option-argument, getopts places it in the
     shell variable OPTARG.

     If an illegal option is encountered, ? is placed in name.

     When getopts reaches the end of options, it exits with a non-zero exit
     status.  The special option ``--'' can be used to delimit the end of the
     options.

     By default, getopts parses positional parameters.  If extra arguments
     (arg ...)  are given on the getopts command line, getopts parses them
     instead.

     /usr/lib/getoptcvt reads the shell script in file, converts it to use
     getopts instead of getopt, and writes the results on the standard output.

     So all new commands adhere to the command syntax standard described in
     intro, they should use getopts or getopt(3C) to parse positional
     parameters and check for legal options (see the WARNINGsection.)

OPTIONS
     -b   Results of running /usr/lib/getoptcvt are portable to earlier
          releases of the UNIX system.  /usr/lib/getoptcvt modifies the shell
          script in file so that when the resulting shell script is executed,
          it determines at run time whether to invoke getopts(1) or getopt(1).

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

          while getopts abo: c
          do
               case $c in
               a | b)    FLAG=$c;;
               o)        OARG=$OPTARG;;

               \?)       echo $USAGE
                         exit 2;;
               esac
          done
          shift `expr $OPTIND - 1`


     This code will accept any of the following as equivalent:

          cmd -a -b -o "xxx z yy" file
          cmd -a -b -o "xxx z yy" -- file
          cmd -ab -o xxx,z,yy file
          cmd -ab -o "xxx z yy" file
          cmd -o xxx,z,yy -b -a file


WARNING
     Although the following command syntax rule (see intro) relaxations are
     permitted under the current implementation, they should not be used
     because they may not be supported in future releases of the system.  As
     in the EXAMPLE section above, a and b are options, and the option o
     requires an option-argument:

               cmd -aboxxx file

     Rule 5 violation: options with option-arguments must not be grouped with
     other options.

               cmd -ab -oxxx file

     Rule 6 violation: there must be white space after an option that takes an
     option-argument.

     Changing the value of the shell variable OPTIND or parsing different sets
     of arguments may lead to unexpected results.

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

SEE ALSO
     intro(1), sh(1).
     getopts(3C) in the SysV Programmer's Reference.