1 .\" $NetBSD: getopt_long.3,v 1.14 2003/08/07 16:43:40 agc Exp $
2 .\" $DragonFly: src/lib/libc/stdlib/getopt_long.3,v 1.1 2004/01/31 13:38:48 joerg Exp $
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31 .\" @(#)getopt.3 8.5 (Berkeley) 4/27/95
38 .Nd get long options from command line argument list
44 .Fn getopt_long "int argc" "char * const *argv" "const char *optstring" "struct option *long options" "int *index"
48 function is similar to
50 but it accepts options in two forms: words and characters.
53 function provides a superset of the functionality of
56 can be used in two ways.
57 In the first way, every long option understood by the program has a
58 corresponding short option, and the option structure is only used to
59 translate from long options to short options.
60 When used in this fashion,
62 behaves identically to
64 This is a good way to add long option processing to an existing program
65 with the minimum of rewriting.
67 In the second mechanism, a long option sets a flag in the
69 structure passed, or will store a pointer to the command line argument
72 structure passed to it for options that take arguments.
73 Additionally, the long option's argument may be specified as a single
74 argument with an equal sign, e.g.
76 myprogram --myoption=somevalue
79 When a long option is processed the call to
82 For this reason, long option processing without
83 shortcuts is not backwards compatible with
86 It is possible to combine these methods, providing for long options
87 processing with short option equivalents for some options.
88 Less frequently used options would be processed as long options only.
92 call requires a structure to be initialized describing the long options.
105 field should contain the option name without the leading double dash.
109 field should be one of:
110 .Bl -tag -width "optional_argument"
112 no argument to the option is expect.
113 .It Li required_argument
114 an argument to the option is required.
115 .It Li optional_argument
116 an argument to the option may be presented.
123 then the integer pointed to by it will be set to the value in the
132 field will be returned.
139 to the corresponding short option will make this function act just
143 .Bd -literal -compact
149 /* options descriptor */
150 static struct option longopts[] = {
151 { "buffy", no_argument, 0, 'b' },
152 { "floride", required_argument, 0, 'f' },
153 { "daggerset", no_argument, \*[Am]daggerset, 1 },
158 while ((ch = getopt_long(argc, argv, "bf:", longopts, NULL)) != -1)
164 if ((fd = open(optarg, O_RDONLY, 0)) \*[Lt] 0) {
165 (void)fprintf(stderr,
166 "myname: %s: %s\en", optarg, strerror(errno));
172 fprintf(stderr,"Buffy will use her dagger to "
173 "apply floride to dracula's teeth\en");
183 .Sh IMPLEMENTATION DIFFERENCES
184 This section describes differences to the GNU implementation
185 found in glibc-2.1.3:
186 .Bl -tag -width "xxx"
188 handling of - as first char of option string in presence of
189 environment variable POSIXLY_CORRECT:
190 .Bl -tag -width "NetBSD"
192 ignores POSIXLY_CORRECT and returns non-options as
193 arguments to option '\e1'.
195 honors POSIXLY_CORRECT and stops at the first non-option.
198 handling of :: in options string in presence of POSIXLY_CORRECT:
199 .Bl -tag -width "NetBSD"
201 GNU and NetBSD ignore POSIXLY_CORRECT here and take :: to
202 mean the preceding option takes an optional argument.
205 return value in case of missing argument if first character
206 (after + or -) in option string is not ':':
207 .Bl -tag -width "NetBSD"
211 returns ':' (since NetBSD's getopt does).
214 handling of --a in getopt:
215 .Bl -tag -width "NetBSD"
217 parses this as option '-', option 'a'.
219 parses this as '--', and returns \-1 (ignoring the a).
220 (Because the original getopt does.)
223 setting of optopt for long options with flag !=
225 .Bl -tag -width "NetBSD"
229 sets optopt to 0 (since val would never be returned).
232 handling of -W with W; in option string in getopt (not getopt_long):
233 .Bl -tag -width "NetBSD"
237 returns \-1, with optind pointing past the argument of -W
238 (as if `-W arg' were `--arg', and thus '--' had been found).
239 .\" How should we treat W; in the option string when called via
240 .\" getopt? Ignore the ';' or treat it as a ':'? Issue a warning?
243 setting of optarg for long options without an argument that are
244 invoked via -W (W; in option string):
245 .Bl -tag -width "NetBSD"
247 sets optarg to the option name (the argument of -W).
251 (the argument of the long option).
254 handling of -W with an argument that is not (a prefix to) a known
255 long option (W; in option string):
256 .Bl -tag -width "NetBSD"
258 returns -W with optarg set to the unknown option.
260 treats this as an error (unknown option) and returns '?' with
261 optopt set to 0 and optarg set to
263 (as GNU's man page documents).
266 The error messages are different.
268 NetBSD does not permute the argument vector at the same points in
269 the calling sequence as GNU does.
270 The aspects normally used by the caller
271 (ordering after \-1 is returned, value of optind relative
272 to current positions) are the same, though.
273 (We do fewer variable swaps.)
280 function first appeared in GNU libiberty.
283 implementation appeared in 1.5.
285 The implementation can completely replace
287 but right now we are using separate code.