xref: /netbsd-src/lib/libc/stdlib/getopt_long.3 (revision b7ae68fde0d8ef1c03714e8bbb1ee7c6118ea93b)
1.\"	$NetBSD: getopt_long.3,v 1.17 2006/06/28 06:25:15 mjl Exp $
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30.\"     @(#)getopt.3	8.5 (Berkeley) 4/27/95
31.\"
32.Dd December 2, 2005
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.Pp
142If the
143.Fa index
144field is not
145.Dv NULL ,
146the integer it points to will be set to the index of the long option
147in the
148.Fa long_options
149array.
150.Pp
151The last element of the
152.Fa long_options
153array has to be filled with zeroes (see
154.Sx EXAMPLES
155section).
156.Sh EXAMPLES
157.Bd -literal -compact
158extern char *optarg;
159extern int optind;
160int bflag, ch, fd;
161int daggerset;
162
163/* options descriptor */
164static struct option longopts[] = {
165	{ "buffy",	no_argument,		0, 		'b' },
166	{ "fluoride",	required_argument,	0, 	       	'f' },
167	{ "daggerset",	no_argument,		\*[Am]daggerset,	1 },
168	{ NULL,		0,			NULL, 		0 }
169};
170
171bflag = 0;
172while ((ch = getopt_long(argc, argv, "bf:", longopts, NULL)) != -1)
173	switch (ch) {
174	case 'b':
175		bflag = 1;
176		break;
177	case 'f':
178		if ((fd = open(optarg, O_RDONLY, 0)) \*[Lt] 0) {
179			(void)fprintf(stderr,
180			    "myname: %s: %s\en", optarg, strerror(errno));
181			exit(1);
182		}
183		break;
184	case 0:
185		if(daggerset) {
186			fprintf(stderr,"Buffy will use her dagger to "
187				       "apply fluoride to dracula's teeth\en");
188		}
189		break;
190	case '?':
191	default:
192		usage();
193}
194argc -= optind;
195argv += optind;
196.Ed
197.Sh IMPLEMENTATION DIFFERENCES
198This section describes differences to the GNU implementation
199found in glibc-2.1.3:
200.Bl -tag -width "xxx"
201.It Li o
202handling of - as first char of option string in presence of
203environment variable POSIXLY_CORRECT:
204.Bl -tag -width "NetBSD"
205.It Li GNU
206ignores POSIXLY_CORRECT and returns non-options as
207arguments to option '\e1'.
208.It Li NetBSD
209honors POSIXLY_CORRECT and stops at the first non-option.
210.El
211.It Li o
212handling of :: in options string in presence of POSIXLY_CORRECT:
213.Bl -tag -width "NetBSD"
214.It Li Both
215GNU and NetBSD ignore POSIXLY_CORRECT here and take :: to
216mean the preceding option takes an optional argument.
217.El
218.It Li o
219return value in case of missing argument if first character
220(after + or -) in option string is not ':':
221.Bl -tag -width "NetBSD"
222.It Li GNU
223returns '?'
224.It NetBSD
225returns ':' (since NetBSD's getopt does).
226.El
227.It Li o
228handling of --a in getopt:
229.Bl -tag -width "NetBSD"
230.It Li GNU
231parses this as option '-', option 'a'.
232.It Li NetBSD
233parses this as '--', and returns \-1 (ignoring the a).
234(Because the original getopt does.)
235.El
236.It Li o
237setting of optopt for long options with flag !=
238.Dv NULL :
239.Bl -tag -width "NetBSD"
240.It Li GNU
241sets optopt to val.
242.It Li NetBSD
243sets optopt to 0 (since val would never be returned).
244.El
245.It Li o
246handling of -W with W; in option string in getopt (not getopt_long):
247.Bl -tag -width "NetBSD"
248.It Li GNU
249causes a segfault.
250.It Li NetBSD
251returns \-1, with optind pointing past the argument of -W
252(as if `-W arg' were `--arg', and thus '--' had been found).
253.\" How should we treat W; in the option string when called via
254.\" getopt?  Ignore the ';' or treat it as a ':'? Issue a warning?
255.El
256.It Li o
257setting of optarg for long options without an argument that are
258invoked via -W (W; in option string):
259.Bl -tag -width "NetBSD"
260.It Li GNU
261sets optarg to the option name (the argument of -W).
262.It Li NetBSD
263sets optarg to
264.Dv NULL
265(the argument of the long option).
266.El
267.It Li o
268handling of -W with an argument that is not (a prefix to) a known
269long option (W; in option string):
270.Bl -tag -width "NetBSD"
271.It Li GNU
272returns -W with optarg set to the unknown option.
273.It Li NetBSD
274treats this as an error (unknown option) and returns '?' with
275optopt set to 0 and optarg set to
276.Dv NULL
277(as GNU's man page documents).
278.El
279.It Li o
280The error messages are different.
281.It Li o
282NetBSD does not permute the argument vector at the same points in
283the calling sequence as GNU does.
284The aspects normally used by the caller
285(ordering after \-1 is returned, value of optind relative
286to current positions) are the same, though.
287(We do fewer variable swaps.)
288.El
289.Sh SEE ALSO
290.Xr getopt 3
291.Sh HISTORY
292The
293.Fn getopt_long
294function first appeared in GNU libiberty.
295The first
296.Nx
297implementation appeared in 1.5.
298.Sh BUGS
299The implementation can completely replace
300.Xr getopt 3 ,
301but right now we are using separate code.
302.Pp
303The
304.Fa argv
305argument is not really const.
306