#include <unistd.h> int getopt(int argc, char * const argv[], const char *optstring); extern char *optarg; extern int optind, opterr, optopt; #include <getopt.h> 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);
Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):
getopt():
_POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 2 || _XOPEN_SOURCE
getopt_long(),
getopt_long_only():
_GNU_SOURCE
The variable optind is the index of the next element to be processed in argv. The system initializes this value to 1. The caller can reset it to 1 to restart scanning of the same argv, or when scanning a new argument vector.
If getopt() finds another option character, it returns that character, updating the external variable optind and a static variable nextchar so that the next call to getopt() can resume the scan with the following option character or argv-element.
If there are no more option characters, getopt() returns -1. Then optind is the index in argv of the first argv-element that is not an option.
optstring is a string containing the legitimate option characters. If such a character is followed by a colon, the option requires an argument, so getopt() places a pointer to the following text in the same argv-element, or the text of the following argv-element, in optarg. Two colons mean an option takes an optional arg; if there is text in the current argv-element (i.e., in the same word as the option name itself, for example, "-oarg"), then it is returned in optarg, otherwise optarg is set to zero. This is a GNU extension. If optstring contains W followed by a semicolon, then -W foo is treated as the long option --foo. (The -W option is reserved by POSIX.2 for implementation extensions.) This behavior is a GNU extension, not available with libraries before glibc 2.
By default, getopt() permutes the contents of argv as it scans, so that eventually all the nonoptions are at the end. Two other modes are also implemented. If the first character of optstring is '+' or the environment variable POSIXLY_CORRECT is set, then option processing stops as soon as a nonoption argument is encountered. If the first character of optstring is '-', then each nonoption argv-element is handled as if it were the argument of an option with character code 1. (This is used by programs that were written to expect options and other argv-elements in any order and that care about the ordering of the two.) The special argument "--" forces an end of option-scanning regardless of the scanning mode.
If getopt() does not recognize an option character, it prints an error message to stderr, stores the character in optopt, and returns '?'. The calling program may prevent the error message by setting opterr to 0.
If getopt() finds an option character in argv that was not included in optstring, or if it detects a missing option argument, it returns '?' and sets the external variable optopt to the actual option character. If the first character (following any optional '+' or '-' described above) of optstring is a colon (':'), then getopt() returns ':' instead of '?' to indicate a missing option argument. If an error was detected, and the first character of optstring is not a colon, and the external variable opterr is nonzero (which is the default), getopt() prints an error message.
longopts is a pointer to the first element of an array of struct option declared in <getopt.h> as
struct option {
const char *name;
int has_arg;
int *flag;
int val;
};
The meanings of the different fields are:
The last element of the array has to be filled with zeros.
If longindex is not NULL, it points to a variable which is set to the index of the long option relative to longopts.
getopt_long_only() is like getopt_long(), but '-' as well as "--" can indicate a long option. If an option that starts with '-' (not "--") doesn't match a long option, but does match a short option, it is parsed as a short option instead.
getopt_long() and getopt_long_only() also return the option character when a short option is recognized. For a long option, they return val if flag is NULL, and 0 otherwise. Error and -1 returns are the same as for getopt(), plus '?' for an ambiguous match or an extraneous parameter.
| Interface | Attribute | Value |
| getopt(), getopt_long(), getopt_long_only() | Thread safety | MT-Unsafe race:getopt env |
The use of '+' and '-' in optstring is a GNU extension.
On some older implementations, getopt() was declared in <stdio.h>. SUSv1 permitted the declaration to appear in either <unistd.h> or <stdio.h>. POSIX.1-2001 marked the use of <stdio.h> for this purpose as LEGACY. POSIX.1-2001 does not allow the declaration to appear in <stdio.h>.
#include <unistd.h> #include <stdlib.h> #include <stdio.h> int main(int argc, char *argv[]) { int flags, opt; int nsecs, tfnd; nsecs = 0; tfnd = 0; flags = 0; while ((opt = getopt(argc, argv, "nt:")) != -1) { switch (opt) { case 'n': flags = 1; break; case 't': nsecs = atoi(optarg); tfnd = 1; break; default: /* '?' */ fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s [-t nsecs] [-n] name\n", argv[0]); exit(EXIT_FAILURE); } } printf("flags=%d; tfnd=%d; nsecs=%d; optind=%d\n", flags, tfnd, nsecs, optind); if (optind >= argc) { fprintf(stderr, "Expected argument after options\n"); exit(EXIT_FAILURE); } printf("name argument = %s\n", argv[optind]); /* Other code omitted */ exit(EXIT_SUCCESS); }
#include <stdio.h> /* for printf */ #include <stdlib.h> /* for exit */ #include <getopt.h> int main(int argc, char **argv) { int c; int digit_optind = 0; while (1) { int this_option_optind = optind ? optind : 1; int option_index = 0; static struct option long_options[] = { {"add", required_argument, 0, 0 }, {"append", no_argument, 0, 0 }, {"delete", required_argument, 0, 0 }, {"verbose", no_argument, 0, 0 }, {"create", required_argument, 0, 'c'}, {"file", required_argument, 0, 0 }, {0, 0, 0, 0 } }; c = getopt_long(argc, argv, "abc:d:012", long_options, &option_index); if (c == -1) break; switch (c) { case 0: printf("option %s", long_options[option_index].name); if (optarg) printf(" with arg %s", optarg); printf("\n"); break; case '0': case '1': case '2': if (digit_optind != 0 && digit_optind != this_option_optind) printf("digits occur in two different argv-elements.\n"); digit_optind = this_option_optind; printf("option %c\n", c); break; case 'a': printf("option a\n"); break; case 'b': printf("option b\n"); break; case 'c': printf("option c with value '%s'\n", optarg); break; case 'd': printf("option d with value '%s'\n", optarg); break; case '?': break; default: printf("?? getopt returned character code 0%o ??\n", c); } } if (optind < argc) { printf("non-option ARGV-elements: "); while (optind < argc) printf("%s ", argv[optind++]); printf("\n"); } exit(EXIT_SUCCESS); }