getopts(1)               USER COMMANDS                 getopts(1)



NAME
     getopts, getoptcvt - parse command options

SYNOPSIS
     getopts optstring name [ arg ... ]

     /usr/lib/getoptcvt [ -b ] file

DESCRIPTION
     getopts is used by  shell  procedures  to  parse  positional
     parameters  and to check for valid 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
     command.  (See the NOTES section 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 places 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  parsees  them  instead.   /usr/lib/getoptcvt
     reads  the  shell script in file, converts it to use getopts
     instead of getopt, and writes the results  on  the  standard
     output.

     -b   Make the converted script 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 or getopt.

     So all new commands will adhere to the command syntax  stan-
     dard  described  in  intro(1),  they  should  use getopts or
     getopt to parse positional parameters and check for  options



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getopts(1)               USER COMMANDS                 getopts(1)



     that  are  valid  for  that  command  (see the NOTES section
     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 accepts 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).
     getopt(3C) in the Programmer's Reference Manual.

NOTES
     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.   The  following  example  violates Rule 5:
     options with option-arguments must not be grouped with other
     options:

          cmd -aboxxx file
     The following example violates Rule 6: there must  be  white
     space after an option that takes an option-argument:

          cmd -ab -oxxx file

     Changing the value of the shell variable OPTIND  or  parsing
     different sets of arguments may lead to unexpected results.





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getopts(1)               USER COMMANDS                 getopts(1)



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




















































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