GETOPT(1)                            SysV                            GETOPT(1)



NAME
     getopt - parse command options

SYNOPSIS
     set -- `getopt optstring $*`

DESCRIPTION
     WARNING:  Start using the new command getopts(1) in place of getopt(1).
     getopt(1) will not be supported in the next major release.  For more
     information, see the WARNINGS section, below.

     getopt breaks up options in command lines for easy parsing by shell
     procedures and checks for legal options.  optstring is a string of
     recognized option letters (see getopt(3C)); if a letter is followed by a
     colon, the option is expected to have an argument which may or may not be
     separated from it by white space.  The special option -- is used to
     delimit the end of the options.  If it is used explicitly, getopt
     recognizes it; otherwise, getopt generates it; in either case, getopt
     places it at the end of the options.  The positional parameters ($1 $2
     ...) of the shell are reset so that each option is preceded by a - and is
     in its own positional parameter; each option argument is also parsed into
     its own positional parameter.

EXAMPLE
     The following code fragment 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 argument:

     set -- `getopt abo: $*`
     if [ $? != 0 ]
     then
          echo $USAGE
          exit 2
     fi
     for i in $*
     do
          case $i in
          -a | -b)  FLAG=$i; shift;;
          -o)  OARG=$2; shift 2;;
          --)  shift; break;;
          esac
     done


     This code will accept any of the following as equivalent:

     cmd -aoarg file file
     cmd -a -o arg file file
     cmd -oarg -a file file
     cmd -a -oarg -- file file


WARNINGS
     getopt(1) does not support the part of Rule 8 of the command syntax
     standard (see intro(1)) that permits groups of option-arguments following
     an option to be separated by white space and quoted.  For example,

     cmd -a -b -o "xxx z yy" file

     is not handled correctly).  To correct this deficiency, use the new
     command getopts(1) in place of getopt(1).

     getopt(1) will not be supported in the next major release.  For this
     release a conversion tool has been provided, getoptcvt.  For more
     information about getopts and getoptcvt, see the getopts(1) manual page.

     If an option that takes an option-argument is followed by a value that is
     the same as one of the options listed in optstring, referring to the
     earlier EXAMPLE section, but using the following command line:

     cmd -o -a file

     getopt always treats -a as an option-argument to -o; it never recognizes
     -a as an option.  In this case, the for loop in the example shifts past
     the file argument.

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

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