xref: /netbsd-src/lib/libc/stdlib/getopt_long.3 (revision 23c8222edbfb0f0932d88a8351d3a0cf817dfb9e)
1.\"	$NetBSD: getopt_long.3,v 1.14 2003/08/07 16:43:40 agc Exp $
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30.\"     @(#)getopt.3	8.5 (Berkeley) 4/27/95
31.\"
32.Dd April 1, 2000
33.Dt GETOPT_LONG 3
34.Os
35.Sh NAME
36.Nm getopt_long
37.Nd get long options from command line argument list
38.Sh LIBRARY
39.Lb libc
40.Sh SYNOPSIS
41.In getopt.h
42.Ft int
43.Fn getopt_long "int argc" "char * const *argv" "const char *optstring" "struct option *long options" "int *index"
44.Sh DESCRIPTION
45The
46.Fn getopt_long
47function is similar to
48.Xr getopt 3
49but it accepts options in two forms: words and characters.
50The
51.Fn getopt_long
52function provides a superset of the functionality of
53.Xr getopt 3 .
54.Fn getopt_long
55can be used in two ways.
56In the first way, every long option understood by the program has a
57corresponding short option, and the option structure is only used to
58translate from long options to short options.
59When used in this fashion,
60.Fn getopt_long
61behaves identically to
62.Xr getopt 3 .
63This is a good way to add long option processing to an existing program
64with the minimum of rewriting.
65.Pp
66In the second mechanism, a long option sets a flag in the
67.Fa option
68structure passed, or will store a pointer to the command line argument
69in the
70.Fa option
71structure passed to it for options that take arguments.
72Additionally, the long option's argument may be specified as a single
73argument with an equal sign, e.g.
74.Bd -literal
75myprogram --myoption=somevalue
76.Ed
77.Pp
78When a long option is processed the call to
79.Fn getopt_long
80will return 0.
81For this reason, long option processing without
82shortcuts is not backwards compatible with
83.Xr getopt 3 .
84.Pp
85It is possible to combine these methods, providing for long options
86processing with short option equivalents for some options.
87Less frequently used options would be processed as long options only.
88.Pp
89The
90.Fn getopt_long
91call requires a structure to be initialized describing the long options.
92The structure is:
93.Bd -literal
94struct option {
95	char *name;
96	int has_arg;
97	int *flag;
98	int val;
99};
100.Ed
101.Pp
102The
103.Fa name
104field should contain the option name without the leading double dash.
105.Pp
106The
107.Fa has_arg
108field should be one of:
109.Bl -tag -width "optional_argument"
110.It Li no_argument
111no argument to the option is expect.
112.It Li required_argument
113an argument to the option is required.
114.It Li optional_argument
115an argument to the option may be presented.
116.El
117.Pp
118If
119.Fa flag
120is not
121.Dv NULL ,
122then the integer pointed to by it will be set to the value in the
123.Fa val
124field.
125If the
126.Fa flag
127field is
128.Dv NULL ,
129then the
130.Fa val
131field will be returned.
132Setting
133.Fa flag
134to
135.Dv NULL
136and setting
137.Fa val
138to the corresponding short option will make this function act just
139like
140.Xr getopt 3 .
141.Sh EXAMPLES
142.Bd -literal -compact
143extern char *optarg;
144extern int optind;
145int bflag, ch, fd;
146int daggerset;
147
148/* options descriptor */
149static struct option longopts[] = {
150	{ "buffy",	no_argument,		0, 		'b' },
151	{ "floride",	required_argument,	0, 	       	'f' },
152	{ "daggerset",	no_argument,		\*[Am]daggerset,	1 },
153	{ NULL,		0,			NULL, 		0 }
154};
155
156bflag = 0;
157while ((ch = getopt_long(argc, argv, "bf:", longopts, NULL)) != -1)
158	switch (ch) {
159	case 'b':
160		bflag = 1;
161		break;
162	case 'f':
163		if ((fd = open(optarg, O_RDONLY, 0)) \*[Lt] 0) {
164			(void)fprintf(stderr,
165			    "myname: %s: %s\en", optarg, strerror(errno));
166			exit(1);
167		}
168		break;
169	case 0:
170		if(daggerset) {
171			fprintf(stderr,"Buffy will use her dagger to "
172				       "apply floride to dracula's teeth\en");
173		}
174		break;
175	case '?':
176	default:
177		usage();
178}
179argc -= optind;
180argv += optind;
181.Ed
182.Sh IMPLEMENTATION DIFFERENCES
183This section describes differences to the GNU implementation
184found in glibc-2.1.3:
185.Bl -tag -width "xxx"
186.It Li o
187handling of - as first char of option string in presence of
188environment variable POSIXLY_CORRECT:
189.Bl -tag -width "NetBSD"
190.It Li GNU
191ignores POSIXLY_CORRECT and returns non-options as
192arguments to option '\e1'.
193.It Li NetBSD
194honors POSIXLY_CORRECT and stops at the first non-option.
195.El
196.It Li o
197handling of :: in options string in presence of POSIXLY_CORRECT:
198.Bl -tag -width "NetBSD"
199.It Li Both
200GNU and NetBSD ignore POSIXLY_CORRECT here and take :: to
201mean the preceding option takes an optional argument.
202.El
203.It Li o
204return value in case of missing argument if first character
205(after + or -) in option string is not ':':
206.Bl -tag -width "NetBSD"
207.It Li GNU
208returns '?'
209.It NetBSD
210returns ':' (since NetBSD's getopt does).
211.El
212.It Li o
213handling of --a in getopt:
214.Bl -tag -width "NetBSD"
215.It Li GNU
216parses this as option '-', option 'a'.
217.It Li NetBSD
218parses this as '--', and returns \-1 (ignoring the a).
219(Because the original getopt does.)
220.El
221.It Li o
222setting of optopt for long options with flag !=
223.Dv NULL :
224.Bl -tag -width "NetBSD"
225.It Li GNU
226sets optopt to val.
227.It Li NetBSD
228sets optopt to 0 (since val would never be returned).
229.El
230.It Li o
231handling of -W with W; in option string in getopt (not getopt_long):
232.Bl -tag -width "NetBSD"
233.It Li GNU
234causes a segfault.
235.It Li NetBSD
236returns \-1, with optind pointing past the argument of -W
237(as if `-W arg' were `--arg', and thus '--' had been found).
238.\" How should we treat W; in the option string when called via
239.\" getopt?  Ignore the ';' or treat it as a ':'? Issue a warning?
240.El
241.It Li o
242setting of optarg for long options without an argument that are
243invoked via -W (W; in option string):
244.Bl -tag -width "NetBSD"
245.It Li GNU
246sets optarg to the option name (the argument of -W).
247.It Li NetBSD
248sets optarg to
249.Dv NULL
250(the argument of the long option).
251.El
252.It Li o
253handling of -W with an argument that is not (a prefix to) a known
254long option (W; in option string):
255.Bl -tag -width "NetBSD"
256.It Li GNU
257returns -W with optarg set to the unknown option.
258.It Li NetBSD
259treats this as an error (unknown option) and returns '?' with
260optopt set to 0 and optarg set to
261.Dv NULL
262(as GNU's man page documents).
263.El
264.It Li o
265The error messages are different.
266.It Li o
267NetBSD does not permute the argument vector at the same points in
268the calling sequence as GNU does.
269The aspects normally used by the caller
270(ordering after \-1 is returned, value of optind relative
271to current positions) are the same, though.
272(We do fewer variable swaps.)
273.El
274.Sh SEE ALSO
275.Xr getopt 3
276.Sh HISTORY
277The
278.Fn getopt_long
279function first appeared in GNU libiberty.
280The first
281.Nx
282implementation appeared in 1.5.
283.Sh BUGS
284The implementation can completely replace
285.Xr getopt 3 ,
286but right now we are using separate code.
287