getopt(1)             UNIX System V(Essential Utilities)              getopt(1)


NAME
      getopt - parse command options

SYNOPSIS
      set -- `getopt optstring $*`

DESCRIPTION
      The getopts command supercedes getopt.  For more information, see the
      NOTES below.

      getopt is used to break up options in command lines for easy parsing by
      shell procedures and to check for legal options.  optstring is a string
      of recognized option letters; see getopt(3C).  If a letter is followed by
      a colon, the option is expected to have an argument which may or may not
      be separated from it by white space.  The special option -- is used to
      delimit the end of the options.  If it is used explicitly, getopt
      recognizes it; otherwise, getopt generates it; in either case, getopt
      places it at the end of the options.  The positional parameters ($1 $2
      ...) of the shell are reset so that each option is preceded by a - and is
      in its own positional parameter; each option argument is also parsed into
      its own positional parameter.

EXAMPLE
      The following code fragment 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 argument:

            set -- `getopt abo: $*`
            if [ $? != 0 ]
            then
                 echo $USAGE
                 exit 2
            fi
            for i in $*
            do
                 case $i in
                 -a | -b)  FLAG=$i; shift;;
                 -o)       OARG=$2; shift 2;;
                 --)       shift; break;;
                 esac
            done

      This code accepts any of the following as equivalent:

            cmd -aoarg file file
            cmd -a -o arg file file
            cmd -oarg -a file file
            cmd -a -oarg -- file file

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


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getopt(1)             UNIX System V(Essential Utilities)              getopt(1)


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

NOTES
      getopt will not be supported in the next major release.  For this release
      a conversion tool has been provided, getoptcvt.  For more information
      about getopts and getoptcvt, see getopts(1).

      Reset optind to 1 when rescanning the options.

      getopt does not support the part of Rule 8 of the command syntax standard
      [see intro(1)] that permits groups of option-arguments following an
      option to be separated by white space and quoted.  For example,

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

      is not handled correctly.  To correct this deficiency, use the getopts
      command in place of getopt.

      If an option that takes an option-argument is followed by a value that is
      the same as one of the options listed in optstring (referring to the
      earlier EXAMPLE section, but using the following command line:  cmd -o -a
      file), getopt always treats -a as an option-argument to -o; it never
      recognizes -a as an option.  For this case, the for loop in the example
      shifts past the file argument.




























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