getopts(1)                          CLIX                          getopts(1)



  NAME

    getopts, getoptcvt - Parse command options

  SYNOPSIS

    getopts optstring name [arg ... ]

    /usr/lib/getoptcvt [-b] file

  FLAGS

    -b   Using the -b flag makes the results of running /usr/lib/getopcvt
         portable to other releases of the UNIX system.  In addition, the -b
         flag modifies the shell script in file so that when the resulting
         shell script is executed, it determines at run time whether to invoke
         getopts or getopt.

  DESCRIPTION

    The getopts command is used by shell procedures to parse positional
    parameters and to check for legal options.  It supports all applicable
    rules of the command syntax standard (see Rules 3-10, intro).  It should
    be used in place of the getopt command.  (See the CAUTIONS, below.)

    The optstring variable must contain the option letters the command using
    getopts will recognize; 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 will place 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, ? will be placed in name.

    When the end of options is encountered, getopts exits with a nonzero exit
    status.  The special option ``--'' may be used to delimit the end of the
    options.

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

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



  2/94 - Intergraph Corporation                                              1

  getopts(1)                          CLIX                          getopts(1)



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

  EXAMPLES

    1.  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


    2.  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


  CAUTIONS

    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.




  2                                              Intergraph Corporation - 2/94

  getopts(1)                          CLIX                          getopts(1)



  DIAGNOSTICS

    The getopts command displays an error message on stderr when it encounters
    an option letter not included in optstring.

  EXIT VALUES

    Exit codes are 0 for normal termination and 1 for all errors.

  RELATED INFORMATION

    Commands: intro(1), sh(1)

    Functions: getopts(3)








































  2/94 - Intergraph Corporation                                              3