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intro(1)

sh(1)

getopts(3C)



     GETOPTS(1)                                             GETOPTS(1)



     NAME
          getopts, getoptcvt - parse command options

     SYNOPSIS
          getopts optstring name [arg ...]

          /usr/lib/getoptcvt [-b] file

     DESCRIPTION
          getopts is a built-in command to sh(1) used 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(1)).  It should be used in place of
          the getopt(1) command.  (See the WARNING, below.)

          optstring 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
          non-zero 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.

          /usr/lib/getoptcvt reads the shell script in file, converts
          it to use getopts(1) instead of getopt(1), and writes the
          results on the standard output.

          -b   the results of running /usr/lib/getoptcvt will be
               portable to earlier releases of the UNIX system.
               /usr/lib/getoptcvt modifies the shell script in file so
               that when the resulting shell script is executed, it
               determines at run time whether to invoke getopts(1) or
               getopt(1).

          So all new commands will adhere to the command syntax



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     GETOPTS(1)                                             GETOPTS(1)



          standard described in intro(1), they should use getopts(1)
          or getopt(3C) to parse positional parameters and check for
          options that are legal for that command (see WARNINGS,
          below).

     EXAMPLE
          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`

          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

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

     WARNING
          Although the following command syntax rule (see intro(1))
          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.

     DIAGNOSTICS
          getopts prints an error message on the standard error when



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     GETOPTS(1)                                             GETOPTS(1)



          it encounters an option letter not included in optstring.

     ORIGIN
          AT&T V.3



















































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