GETOPT(3)

NAME
getopt - get option character from command line argument list

SYNOPSIS
#include <stdlib.h>

extern char *optarg;
extern int optind;
extern int optopt;
extern int opterr;
extern int optreset;

int getopt (int argc, char * const *argv, const char *optstring);
int getopt_restart (void);

DESCRIPTION
This manual page describes the BSD implementation of getopt.

The getopt function incrementally parses a command line argument list argv and returns the next known option character. An option character is known if it has been specified in the string of accepted option characters, optstring.

The option string optstring may contain the following elements: individual characters, and characters followed by a colon to indicate an option argument is to follow. For example, an option string x recognizes an option -x, and an option string x: recognizes an option and argument -x argument. It does not matter to getopt if a following argument has leading white space.

On return from getopt, optarg points to an option argument, if it is anticipated, and the variable optind contains the index to the next argv argument for a subsequent call to getopt. The variable optopt saves the last known option character returned by getopt.

The variable opterr and optind are both initialized to 1. The optind variable may be set to another value before a set of calls to getopt in order to skip over more or less argv entries.

In order to use getopt to evaluate multiple sets of arguments, or to evaluate a single set of arguments multiple times, the variable optreset must be set to 1 before the second and each additional set of calls to getopt, and the variable optind must be reinitialized.

The getopt function returns an EOF when the argument list is exhausted, or a non-recognized option is encountered. The interpretation of options in the argument list may be canceled by the option -- (double dash) which causes getopt to signal the end of argument processing and return an EOF. When all options have been processed (i.e., up to the first non-option argument), getopt returns EOF.

The getopt_restart function sets optreset and optind to 1 and returns zero. It is provided for backwards compatibility with older versions of GNO, and should be avoided in new code.

DIAGNOSTICS
If the getopt function encounters a character not found in the string optarg or detects a missing option argument it writes an error message and returns ? to the stderr. Setting opterr to a zero will disable these error messages. If optstring has a leading : then a missing option argument causes a : to be returned in addition to suppressing any error messages.

Option arguments are allowed to begin with -; this is reasonable but reduces the amount of error checking possible.

EXTENSIONS
The optreset variable was added to make it possible to call the getopt function multiple times. This is an extension to the POSIX 1003.2 specification.

The getopt_reset function is also an extension, but one that has been deprecated.

LIMITATIONS
This implementation of getopt does not allow one to mix options and non-option arguments; option processing will halt as soon as the first non-option argument is found. The GNU implementation does not have this limitation, but also cannot be restarted. The GNU implementation also allows "long options", where the option name may be more than one character.

See the GNO FAQ regarding availability of the GNU implementation of getopt and getopt_long(3) for GNO.

EXAMPLE
extern char *optarg;
extern int optind;
int bflag, ch, fd;
bflag = 0;
while ((ch = getopt(argc, argv, "bf:")) != EOF)
	switch(ch) {
	case 'b':
		bflag = 1;
		break;
	case 'f':
		if ((fd = open(optarg, O_RDONLY, 0)) < 0) {
			(void)fprintf(stderr,
			    "myname: %s: %s\n", optarg, strerror(errno));
			exit(1);
		}
		break;
	case '?':
	default:
		usage();
}
argc -= optind;
argv += optind;

HISTORY
The getopt function appeared 4.3BSD.

BUGS
A single dash - may be specified as an character in optstring, however it should never have an argument associated with it. This allows getopt to be used with programs that expect - as an option flag. This practice is wrong, and should not be used in any current development. It is provided for backward compatibility only. By default, a single dash causes getopt to return EOF. This is, we believe, compatible with System V.

It is also possible to handle digits as option letters. This allows getopt to be used with programs that expect a number (such as -3) as an option. This practice is wrong, and should not be used in any current development. It is provided for backward compatibility only. The following code fragment works in most cases.
int length;
char *p;
while ((c = getopt(argc, argv, "0123456789")) != EOF)
	switch (c) {
	case '0': case '1': case '2': case '3': case '4':
	case '5': case '6': case '7': case '8': case '9':
		p = argv[optind - 1];
		if (p[0] == '-' && p[1] == ch && !p[2])
			length = atoi(++p);
		else
			length = atoi(argv[optind] + 1);
		break;
	}
}

SEE ALSO
getsubopt(3), getopt_long(3G).