GETOPT_LONG(3) BSD Library Functions Manual GETOPT_LONG(3)
NAME
getopt_long, getopt_long_only -- get long options from command line argument list
LIBRARY
Standard C Library (libc, -lc)
SYNOPSIS
#include <getopt.h>
extern char *optarg;
extern int optind;
extern int optopt;
extern int opterr;
extern int optreset;
int
getopt_long(int argc, char * const *argv, const char *optstring, const struct option *longopts,
int *longindex);
int
getopt_long_only(int argc, char * const *argv, const char *optstring, const struct option *longopts,
int *longindex);
DESCRIPTION
The getopt_long() function is similar to getopt(3) but it accepts options in two forms: words and char-acters. characters.
acters. The getopt_long() function provides a superset of the functionality of getopt(3). The
getopt_long() function can be used in two ways. In the first way, every long option understood by the
program has a corresponding short option, and the option structure is only used to translate from long
options to short options. When used in this fashion, getopt_long() behaves identically to getopt(3).
This is a good way to add long option processing to an existing program with the minimum of rewriting.
In the second mechanism, a long option sets a flag in the option structure passed, or will store a
pointer to the command line argument in the option structure passed to it for options that take argu-ments. arguments.
ments. Additionally, the long option's argument may be specified as a single argument with an equal
sign, e.g.,
myprogram --myoption=somevalue
When a long option is processed, the call to getopt_long() will return 0. For this reason, long option
processing without shortcuts is not backwards compatible with getopt(3).
It is possible to combine these methods, providing for long options processing with short option equiv-alents equivalents
alents for some options. Less frequently used options would be processed as long options only.
The getopt_long() call requires a structure to be initialized describing the long options. The struc-ture structure
ture is:
struct option {
char *name;
int has_arg;
int *flag;
int val;
};
The name field should contain the option name without the leading double dash.
The has_arg field should be one of:
no_argument no argument to the option is expect
required_argument an argument to the option is required
optional_argument an argument to the option may be presented.
If flag is not NULL, then the integer pointed to by it will be set to the value in the val field. If
the flag field is NULL, then the val field will be returned. Setting flag to NULL and setting val to
the corresponding short option will make this function act just like getopt(3).
If the longindex field is not NULL, then the integer pointed to by it will be set to the index of the
long option relative to longopts.
The last element of the longopts array has to be filled with zeroes.
The getopt_long_only() function behaves identically to getopt_long() with the exception that long
options may start with `-' in addition to `--'. If an option starting with `-' does not match a long
option but does match a single-character option, the single-character option is returned.
RETURN VALUES
If the flag field in struct option is NULL, getopt_long() and getopt_long_only() return the value spec-ified specified
ified in the val field, which is usually just the corresponding short option. If flag is not NULL,
these functions return 0 and store val in the location pointed to by flag. These functions return `:'
if there was a missing option argument, `?' if the user specified an unknown or ambiguous option, and
-1 when the argument list has been exhausted.
EXAMPLES
int bflag, ch, fd;
int daggerset;
/* options descriptor */
static struct option longopts[] = {
{ "buffy", no_argument, NULL, 'b' },
{ "fluoride", required_argument, NULL, 'f' },
{ "daggerset", no_argument, &daggerset, 1 },
{ NULL, 0, NULL, 0 }
};
bflag = 0;
while ((ch = getopt_long(argc, argv, "bf:", longopts, NULL)) != -1)
switch (ch) {
case 'b':
bflag = 1;
break;
case 'f':
if ((fd = open(optarg, O_RDONLY, 0)) == -1)
err(1, "unable to open %s", optarg);
break;
case 0:
if (daggerset) {
fprintf(stderr,"Buffy will use her dagger to "
"apply fluoride to dracula's teeth\n");
}
break;
default:
usage();
}
argc -= optind;
argv += optind;
IMPLEMENTATION DIFFERENCES
This section describes differences to the GNU implementation found in glibc-2.1.3:
oo Setting of optopt for long options with flag != NULL:
GNU sets optopt to val.
BSD sets optopt to 0 (since val would never be returned).
oo Setting of optarg for long options without an argument that are invoked via `-W' (`W;' in option
string):
GNU sets optarg to the option name (the argument of `-W').
BSD sets optarg to NULL (the argument of the long option).
oo Handling of `-W' with an argument that is not (a prefix to) a known long option (`W;' in option
string):
GNU returns `-W' with optarg set to the unknown option.
BSD treats this as an error (unknown option) and returns `?' with optopt set to 0 and optarg set
to NULL (as GNU's man page documents).
oo BSD does not permute the argument vector at the same points in the calling sequence as GNU does.
The aspects normally used by the caller (ordering after -1 is returned, value of optind relative to
current positions) are the same, though. (We do fewer variable swaps.)
ENVIRONMENT
POSIXLY_CORRECT If set, option processing stops when the first non-option is found and a leading `-'
or `+' in the optstring is ignored.
SEE ALSO
getopt(3)
HISTORY
The getopt_long() and getopt_long_only() functions first appeared in GNU libiberty. The first BSD
implementation of getopt_long() appeared in NetBSD 1.5, the first BSD implementation of
getopt_long_only() in OpenBSD 3.3. FreeBSD first included getopt_long() in FreeBSD 5.0,
getopt_long_only() in FreeBSD 5.2.
BUGS
The argv argument is not really const as its elements may be permuted (unless POSIXLY_CORRECT is set).
The implementation can completely replace getopt(3), but right now we are using separate code.
BSD April 1, 2000 BSD
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