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GETOPT(3P) POSIX Programmer's Manual GETOPT(3P)
PROLOG
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (con-
sult the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may not be implemented on
Linux.
NAME
getopt, optarg, opterr, optind, optopt - command option parsing
SYNOPSIS
#include <unistd.h>
int getopt(int argc, char * const argv[], const char *optstring);
extern char *optarg;
extern int optind, opterr, optopt;
DESCRIPTION
The getopt() function is a command-line parser that shall follow Utility Syntax Guidelines 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, and 10 in
the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines.
The parameters argc and argv are the argument count and argument array as passed to main() (see exec()). The argument
optstring is a string of recognized option characters; if a character is followed by a colon, the option takes an argu-
ment. All option characters allowed by Utility Syntax Guideline 3 are allowed in optstring. The implementation may accept
other characters as an extension.
The variable optind is the index of the next element of the argv[] vector to be processed. It shall be initialized to 1
by the system, and getopt() shall update it when it finishes with each element of argv[]. When an element of argv[] con-
tains multiple option characters, it is unspecified how getopt() determines which options have already been processed.
The getopt() function shall return the next option character (if one is found) from argv that matches a character in opt-
string, if there is one that matches. If the option takes an argument, getopt() shall set the variable optarg to point to
the option-argument as follows:
1. If the option was the last character in the string pointed to by an element of argv, then optarg shall contain the
next element of argv, and optind shall be incremented by 2. If the resulting value of optind is greater than argc,
this indicates a missing option-argument, and getopt() shall return an error indication.
2. Otherwise, optarg shall point to the string following the option character in that element of argv, and optind shall
be incremented by 1.
If, when getopt() is called:
argv[optind] is a null pointer*
argv[optind] is not the character -
argv[optind] points to the string "-"
getopt() shall return -1 without changing optind. If:
argv[optind] points to the string "--"
getopt() shall return -1 after incrementing optind.
If getopt() encounters an option character that is not contained in optstring, it shall return the question-mark ( '?' )
character. If it detects a missing option-argument, it shall return the colon character ( ':' ) if the first character of
optstring was a colon, or a question-mark character ( '?' ) otherwise. In either case, getopt() shall set the variable
optopt to the option character that caused the error. If the application has not set the variable opterr to 0 and the
first character of optstring is not a colon, getopt() shall also print a diagnostic message to stderr in the format spec-
ified for the getopts utility.
The getopt() function need not be reentrant. A function that is not required to be reentrant is not required to be
thread-safe.
RETURN VALUE
The getopt() function shall return the next option character specified on the command line.
A colon ( ':' ) shall be returned if getopt() detects a missing argument and the first character of optstring was a colon
( ':' ).
A question mark ( '?' ) shall be returned if getopt() encounters an option character not in optstring or detects a miss-
ing argument and the first character of optstring was not a colon ( ':' ).
Otherwise, getopt() shall return -1 when all command line options are parsed.
ERRORS
No errors are defined.
The following sections are informative.
EXAMPLES
Parsing Command Line Options
The following code fragment shows how you might process the arguments for a utility that can take the mutually-exclusive
options a and b and the options f and o, both of which require arguments:
#include <unistd.h>
int
main(int argc, char *argv[ ])
{
int c;
int bflg, aflg, errflg;
char *ifile;
char *ofile;
extern char *optarg;
extern int optind, optopt;
. . .
while ((c = getopt(argc, argv, ":abf:o:")) != -1) {
switch(c) {
case 'a':
if (bflg)
errflg++;
else
aflg++;
break;
case 'b':
if (aflg)
errflg++;
else {
bflg++;
bproc();
}
break;
case 'f':
ifile = optarg;
break;
case 'o':
ofile = optarg;
break;
case ':': /* -f or -o without operand */
fprintf(stderr,
"Option -%c requires an operand\n", optopt);
errflg++;
break;
case '?':
fprintf(stderr,
"Unrecognized option: -%c\n", optopt);
errflg++;
}
}
if (errflg) {
fprintf(stderr, "usage: . . . ");
exit(2);
}
for ( ; optind < argc; optind++) {
if (access(argv[optind], R_OK)) {
. . .
}
This code accepts any of the following as equivalent:
cmd -ao arg path path
cmd -a -o arg path path
cmd -o arg -a path path
cmd -a -o arg -- path path
cmd -a -oarg path path
cmd -aoarg path path
Checking Options and Arguments
The following example parses a set of command line options and prints messages to standard output for each option and
argument that it encounters.
#include <unistd.h>
#include <stdio.h>
...
int c;
char *filename;
extern char *optarg;
extern int optind, optopt, opterr;
...
while ((c = getopt(argc, argv, ":abf:")) != -1) {
switch(c) {
case 'a':
printf("a is set\n");
break;
case 'b':
printf("b is set\n");
break;
case 'f':
filename = optarg;
printf("filename is %s\n", filename);
break;
case ':':
printf("-%c without filename\n", optopt);
break;
case '?':
printf("unknown arg %c\n", optopt);
break;
}
}
Selecting Options from the Command Line
The following example selects the type of database routines the user wants to use based on the Options argument.
#include <unistd.h>
#include <string.h>
...
char *Options = "hdbtl";
...
int dbtype, i;
char c;
char *st;
...
dbtype = 0;
while ((c = getopt(argc, argv, Options)) != -1) {
if ((st = strchr(Options, c)) != NULL) {
dbtype = st - Options;
break;
}
}
APPLICATION USAGE
The getopt() function is only required to support option characters included in Utility Syntax Guideline 3. Many histori-
cal implementations of getopt() support other characters as options. This is an allowed extension, but applications that
use extensions are not maximally portable. Note that support for multi-byte option characters is only possible when such
characters can be represented as type int.
RATIONALE
The optopt variable represents historical practice and allows the application to obtain the identity of the invalid
option.
The description has been written to make it clear that getopt(), like the getopts utility, deals with option-arguments
whether separated from the option by <blank>s or not. Note that the requirements on getopt() and getopts are more strin-
gent than the Utility Syntax Guidelines.
The getopt() function shall return -1, rather than EOF, so that <stdio.h> is not required.
The special significance of a colon as the first character of optstring makes getopt() consistent with the getopts util-
ity. It allows an application to make a distinction between a missing argument and an incorrect option letter without
having to examine the option letter. It is true that a missing argument can only be detected in one case, but that is a
case that has to be considered.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSO
exec(), the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, <unistd.h>, the Shell and Utilities volume of
IEEE Std 1003.1-2001
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for
Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 6, Copy-
right (C) 2001-2003 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the event of any
discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group
Standard is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at http://www.open-
group.org/unix/online.html .
IEEE/The Open Group 2003 GETOPT(3P)
