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#pragma section-numbers 3
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Well, that depends a great deal on what you want to do with them.
There are several approaches, each with its strengths and weaknesses.
Well, that depends a great deal on what you want to do with them. There are several approaches, each with its strengths and weaknesses.
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Manually parsing options without the use of a specialized function is the most flexible approach, and is sufficient for most simple scripts.
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This approach handles any arbitrary set of options, because you're
writing the parser yourself. For 90% of programs, it may suffice.

Here's an example that will handle a combination of short (`-v`, `-h`) and
long (`--verbose`, `--help`) options; and also style `--verbose=LEVEL`.
This example will handle a combination of short (POSIX) and long "GNU style" options with option arguments. Notice how both `--file FILE` and `--file=FILE` are handled. Typical scripts may also use functions and local variables, which can greatly improve your code. This example however illustrates a strictly POSIX conforming script.
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#
# Copyright (C) 2012 Jari Aalto <jari.aalto@cante.net>
#
# This program is free; you can redistribute and/or modify it under
# the terms of GNU General Public license either version 2 of the
# License, or (at your option) any later version.
# POSIX
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Help ()
{
    # To learn what TOP LEVEL sections to use in manual page,
    # see POSIX/Susv standard about "Utility Description Defaults" at
    # http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/utilities/xcu_chap01.html#tag_01_11
# Reset all variables that might be set
file=
verbose=0 # Variables to be evaluated as shell arithmetic should be initialized to a default or validated beforehand.
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    echo "
SYNOPSIS
    $0 [options] <argument>
while :; do
    case $1 in
        -h|-\?|--help) # Call a "show_help" function to display a synopsis, then exit.
            show_help
            exit
            ;;
        -f|--file) # Takes an option argument, ensuring it has been specified.
            if [ -n "$2" ]; then
                file=$2
                shift
            else
                printf 'ERROR: "--file" requires a non-empty option argument.\n' >&2
                exit 1
            fi
            ;;
        --file=?*)
            file=${1#*=} # Delete everything up to "=" and assign the remainder.
            ;;
        --file=) # Handle the case of an empty --file=
            printf 'ERROR: "--file" requires a non-empty option argument.\n' >&2
            exit 1
            ;;
        -v|--verbose)
            verbose=$((verbose + 1)) # Each -v argument adds 1 to verbosity.
            ;;
        --) # End of all options.
            shift
            break
            ;;
        -?*)
            printf 'WARN: Unknown option (ignored): %s\n' "$1" >&2
            ;;
        *) # Default case: If no more options then break out of the loop.
            break
    esac
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DESCRIPTION
    This program demonstrates use of options in shell scripts. Works
    in any POSIX compatible shell.
    shift
done
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OPTIONS
    -h, --help
        Display program help.
# if --file was provided, open it for writing, else duplicate stdout
if [ -n "$file" ]; then
    exec 3> "$file"
else
    exec 3>&1
fi
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    -v, --verbose [LEVEL], --verbose=[LEVEL]
        Enable verbose messages. With optional LEVEL, increase
 verbosity. Allowed range is 1..9.
# Rest of the program here.
# If there are input files (for example) that follow the options, they
# will remain in the "$@" positional parameters.
}}}
This parser does not handle separate options concatenated together (like `-xvf` being understood as `-x -v -f`). This could be added with effort, but this is left as an exercise for the reader.
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"
    exit 0
=== getopts ===
Unless it's the version from util-linux, and you use its advanced mode, '''never use getopt(1).''' Traditional versions of `getopt` cannot handle empty argument strings, or arguments with embedded whitespace.

The POSIX shell (and others) offer `getopts` which is safe to use instead. Here is a simplistic `getopts` example:

{{{#!highlight bash
#!/bin/sh

# Usage info
show_help() {
cat << EOF
Usage: ${0##*/} [-hv] [-f OUTFILE] [FILE]...
Do stuff with FILE and write the result to standard output. With no FILE
or when FILE is -, read standard input.

    -h display this help and exit
    -f OUTFILE write the result to OUTFILE instead of standard output.
    -v verbose mode. Can be used multiple times for increased
                verbosity.
EOF
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Warn ()
{
    echo "$*" >&2
}
# Initialize our own variables:
output_file=""
verbose=0
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Die ()
{
    Warn "$*"
    exit 1
}
OPTIND=1
# Resetting OPTIND is necessary if getopts was used previously in the script.
# It is a good idea to make OPTIND local if you process options in a function.
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Verbose ()
{
    [ "$verbose" ] || return 0
while getopts "hvf:" opt; do
    case "$opt" in
        h)
            show_help
            exit 0
            ;;
        v) verbose=$((verbose+1))
            ;;
        f) output_file=$OPTARG
            ;;
        '?')
            show_help >&2
            exit 1
            ;;
    esac
done
shift "$((OPTIND-1))" # Shift off the options and optional --.
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    if [ $verbose_level -ge $1 ]; then
 shift
 echo "$*"
    fi
}

Main ()
{
    help="" # Reset all option variables that might be set later
    verbose=""
    verbose_level=""

    while :
    do
        case "$1" in
            -h | --help)
                help="help"
                shift # Remove from argument list
  Help
                ;;
            --verbose=*)
  # If you want to support --option=VALUE style
                verbose="verbose"
  verbose_level=${1#*=} # Delete everyting up till "="
  shift
  ;;
            -v | --verbose)
                verbose="verbose"
  verbose_level=1
  shift

  # Support "--verbose LEVEL" by reading next argument.

  case "$1" in
      [0-9]) verbose_level=$1
      shift
      ;;
  esac
                ;;
            --) # End of all options
                shift
                break
                ;;
            -*)
                Warn "WARN: Unknown option: $1"
                shift
                ;;
            *) # no more options. Stop while loop
                break
                ;;
        esac
    done

    # Suppose, some options are required. Check that we got them

    [ "$verbose" ] || Die "ERROR: option --verbose not given. See --help"

    # Just to show how to display verbose messages from program

    Verbose 1 "Verbose is now SET to level $verbose_level"

    # <Rest of your code here>
}

Main "$@"
# Everything that's left in "$@" is a non-option. In our case, a FILE to process.
printf 'verbose=<%d>\noutput_file=<%s>\nLeftovers:\n' "$verbose" "$output_file"
printf '<%s>\n' "$@"
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What is ''not possible'' to do with pure shell approach, is to try to
parse separate options concatenaed together. Like like `-xvf` which
would understoos as `-x -v -f`. This could be possible with lot of
effort, but in practise it wouldn't be worth it.
There is a [[http://wiki.bash-hackers.org/howto/getopts_tutorial|getopts tutorial]] which explains what all of the syntax and variables mean. In bash, there is also `help getopts`, which might be informative.
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You may be interested in knowing that some Bash programmers like
to write this at the beginning of their scripts to guard against
unused variables:
The advantages of `getopts`:
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{{{
    set -u # or, set -o nounset
}}}
 1. It's portable, and will work in any POSIX shell e.g. dash.
 1. It can handle things like `-vf filename` in the expected Unix way, automatically.
 1. It understands `--` as the option terminator and more generally makes sure, options are parsed like for any standard command.
 1. With some implementations, the error messages will be localised in the language of the user.
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=== getopts === The disadvantages of `getopts`:
 1. (Except for ksh93 `getopts`) it can only handle short options (`-h`, not `--help`) without trickery.
 1. It cannot handle options with optional arguments à la GNU.
 1. Options are coded in at least 2, probably 3 places -- in the call to `getopts`, in the case statement that processes them, and in the help/usage message that documents them.
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'''Never use getopt(1).''' `getopt` cannot handle empty arguments
strings, or arguments with embedded whitespace. Please forget that it
ever existed.
For other, more complicated ways of option parsing, see ComplexOptionParsing.
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The POSIX shell (and others) offer `getopts` which is safe to use
instead. Here is a simplistic `getopts` example:
=== Argbash ===
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{{{#!highlight bash
#!/bin/sh
[[https://github.com/matejak/argbash|Argbash]] is a simple-to-use yet feature-rich code generator that can either generate the parsing code for your script, tailor-made. The project features extensive [[http://argbash.readthedocs.io/en/stable/index.html|documentation]].
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# A POSIX variable
OPTIND=1 # Reset in case getopts has been used previously in the shell.

while getopts "h?vf:" opt; do
    case "$opt" in
 h|\?)
     show_help
     exit 0
     ;;
 v) verbose=1
     ;;
 f) output_file=$OPTARG
     ;;
    esac
done

shift $((OPTIND-1))

[ "$1" = "--" ] && shift

echo "verbose=$verbose, output_file='$output_file', Leftovers: $@"

# End of file
}}}

The disadvantage of `getopts` is that it can only handle short options
(`-h`) without trickery. It handles `-vf filename` in the expected
Unix way, automatically. `getopts` is a good candidate because it is
portable and e.g. also works in dash.

There is a
[[http://wiki.bash-hackers.org/howto/getopts_tutorial|getopts
tutorial]] which explains what all of the syntax and variables mean.
In bash, there is also `help getopts`, which might be informative.

There is also still the disadvantage that options are coded in at
least 2, probably 3 places - in the call to `getopts`, in the case
statement that processes them and presumably in the help message that
you are going to get around to writing one of these days. This is a
classic opportunity for errors to creep in as the code is written and
maintained - often not discovered till much, much later. This can be
avoided by using callback functions, but this approach kind of defeats
the purpose of using getopts at all.

Here is an example which parses long options with `getopts`. The basic
idea is quite simple: just put "-:" into the optstring. This trick
requires a shell which permits the option-argument (i.e. the filename
in "-f filename") to be concatenated to the option (as in
"-ffilename"). The
[[http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/getopts.html|POSIX
standard]] says there must be a space between them; bash and dash
permit the "-ffilename" variant, but one should not rely on this
leniency if attempting to write a portable script.

{{{#!highlight bash
#!/bin/bash
# Uses bash extensions. Not portable as written.

optspec=":h-:"

while getopts "$optspec" optchar
do
    case "${optchar}" in
 -)
     case "${OPTARG}" in
       loglevel)
    eval val="\$${OPTIND}"; OPTIND=$(( $OPTIND + 1 ))
    echo "Parsing option: '--${OPTARG}', value: '${val}'" >&2
    ;;
       loglevel=*)
    val=${OPTARG#*=}
    opt=${OPTARG%=$val}
    echo "Parsing option: '--${opt}', value: '${val}'" >&2
    ;;
     esac
     ;;
 h)
     echo "usage: $0 [--loglevel[=]<value>]" >&2
     exit 2
     ;;
    esac
done
}}}

=== Silly repeated brute-force scanning ===

Another approach is to check options with `if` statements "on demand".
A function like this one may be useful:
The sample project from above (script accepting a `-f|--file|--verbose|...`) would use the following template:
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HaveOpt ()
{
    local needle=$1
    shift
# ARG_OPTIONAL_SINGLE([file],[f],[input file])
# ARG_VERBOSE()
# ARG_POSITIONAL_DOUBLEDASH()
# ARG_LEFTOVERS([other args])
# ARGBASH_GO()
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    while [[ $1 == -* ]]
    do
 # By convention, "--" means end of options.
 case "$1" in
     --) return 1 ;;
     $needle) return 0 ;;
 esac
# [ <-- needed because of Argbash
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 shift
    done
if [ "$_arg_verbose" -gt 0 ]; then
 echo "Input file: $_arg_file"
 echo "Other args: ${_arg_leftovers[*]}"
fi
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    return 1
}

HaveOpt --quick "$@" && echo "Option quick is set"

# End of file
# ] <-- needed because of Argbash
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and it will work if script is run as:

 * YES: ./script --quick
 * YES: ./script -other --quick

but will stop on first argument with no "-" in front (or on --):

 * NO: ./script -bar foo --quick
 * NO: ./script -bar -- --quick

Of course, this approach (iterating over the argument list every time
you want to check for one) is far less efficient than just iterating
once and setting flag variables.

It also spreads the options throughout the program. The literal option
`--quick` may appear a hundred lines down inside the main body of the
program, nowhere near any other option name. This is a nightmare for
maintenance.

=== Complex nonstandard add-on utilities ===

[[http://bhepple.freeshell.org/oddmuse/wiki.cgi/process-getopt|bhepple]] suggests the use of [[http://sourceforge.net/projects/process-getopt/|process-getopt]] (GPL licensed) and offers this example code:
Then, executing the result script as `./script.sh -f my-file --verbose -- one two three --file foo` would yield
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PROG=$(basename $0)
VERSION='1.2'
USAGE="A tiny example using process-getopt(1)"

# call process-getopt functions to define some options:
source process-getopt

SLOT=""
SLOT_func() { [ "${1:-""}" ] && SLOT="yes"; } # callback for SLOT option
add_opt SLOT "boolean option" s "" slot

TOKEN=""
TOKEN_func() { [ "${1:-""}" ] && TOKEN="$2"; } # callback for TOKEN option
add_opt TOKEN "this option takes a value" t n token number

add_std_opts # define the standard options --help etc:

TEMP=$(call_getopt "$@") || exit 1
eval set -- "$TEMP" # just as with getopt(1)

# remove the options from the command line
process_opts "$@" || shift "$?"

echo "SLOT=$SLOT"
echo "TOKEN=$TOKEN"
echo "args=$@"
    Input file: foo
    other args: one two three
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Here, all information about each option is defined in one place making
for much easier authoring and maintenance. A lot of the dirty work is
handled automatically and standards are obeyed as in getopt(1) -
because it calls getopt for you.
The project also features a [[http://argbash.readthedocs.io/en/stable/example.html#minimal-example|quickstart utility]] that can generate a minimal template for you like this:
`argbash-init --opt file --pos arg-positional | argbash - -o basic_script.sh && ./basic_script.sh -h`
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 . ''Actually, what the author forgot to say was that it's actually using `getopts` semantics, rather than `getopt`. I ran this test:''
 {{{
 ~/process-getopt-1.6$ set -- one 'rm -rf /' 'foo;bar' "'"
 ~/process-getopt-1.6$ call_getopt "$@"
  -- 'rm -rf /' 'foo;bar' ''\'''
{{{
<The general help message of my script>
Usage: ./basic_script.sh [--file <arg>] [-h|--help] <arg-positional>
 <arg-positional>: <arg-positional's help message goes here>
 --file: <file's help message goes here> (no default)
 -h,--help: Prints help
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 . ''It appears to be intelligent enough to handle null options, whitespace-containing options, and single-quote-containing options in a manner that makes the [[BashFAQ/048|eval]] not blow up in your face. But this is not an endorsement of the process-getopt software overall; I don't know it well enough. -GreyCat ''
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''It's written and tested on Linux where getopt(1) supports long options. For portability, it tests the local getopt(1) at runtime and if it finds an non-GNU one (ie one that does not return 4 for {{{getopt --test}}}) it only processes short options. It does not use the bash builtin getopts(1) command. -[[http://bhepple.freeshell.org/oddmuse/wiki.cgi/process-getopt|bhepple]] ''
One can then just fine-tune the template and get a script with argument parsing capabilities with little effort.
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'' CategoryShell '' CategoryShell

How can I handle command-line arguments (options) to my script easily?

Well, that depends a great deal on what you want to do with them. There are several approaches, each with its strengths and weaknesses.

Manual loop

Manually parsing options without the use of a specialized function is the most flexible approach, and is sufficient for most simple scripts.

This example will handle a combination of short (POSIX) and long "GNU style" options with option arguments. Notice how both --file FILE and --file=FILE are handled. Typical scripts may also use functions and local variables, which can greatly improve your code. This example however illustrates a strictly POSIX conforming script.

   1 #!/bin/sh
   2 # POSIX
   3 
   4 # Reset all variables that might be set
   5 file=
   6 verbose=0 # Variables to be evaluated as shell arithmetic should be initialized to a default or validated beforehand.
   7 
   8 while :; do
   9     case $1 in
  10         -h|-\?|--help)   # Call a "show_help" function to display a synopsis, then exit.
  11             show_help
  12             exit
  13             ;;
  14         -f|--file)       # Takes an option argument, ensuring it has been specified.
  15             if [ -n "$2" ]; then
  16                 file=$2
  17                 shift
  18             else
  19                 printf 'ERROR: "--file" requires a non-empty option argument.\n' >&2
  20                 exit 1
  21             fi
  22             ;;
  23         --file=?*)
  24             file=${1#*=} # Delete everything up to "=" and assign the remainder.
  25             ;;
  26         --file=)         # Handle the case of an empty --file=
  27             printf 'ERROR: "--file" requires a non-empty option argument.\n' >&2
  28             exit 1
  29             ;;
  30         -v|--verbose)
  31             verbose=$((verbose + 1)) # Each -v argument adds 1 to verbosity.
  32             ;;
  33         --)              # End of all options.
  34             shift
  35             break
  36             ;;
  37         -?*)
  38             printf 'WARN: Unknown option (ignored): %s\n' "$1" >&2
  39             ;;
  40         *)               # Default case: If no more options then break out of the loop.
  41             break
  42     esac
  43 
  44     shift
  45 done
  46 
  47 # if --file was provided, open it for writing, else duplicate stdout
  48 if [ -n "$file" ]; then
  49     exec 3> "$file"
  50 else
  51     exec 3>&1
  52 fi
  53 
  54 # Rest of the program here.
  55 # If there are input files (for example) that follow the options, they
  56 # will remain in the "$@" positional parameters.

This parser does not handle separate options concatenated together (like -xvf being understood as -x -v -f). This could be added with effort, but this is left as an exercise for the reader.

getopts

Unless it's the version from util-linux, and you use its advanced mode, never use getopt(1). Traditional versions of getopt cannot handle empty argument strings, or arguments with embedded whitespace.

The POSIX shell (and others) offer getopts which is safe to use instead. Here is a simplistic getopts example:

   1 #!/bin/sh
   2 
   3 # Usage info
   4 show_help() {
   5 cat << EOF
   6 Usage: ${0##*/} [-hv] [-f OUTFILE] [FILE]...
   7 Do stuff with FILE and write the result to standard output. With no FILE
   8 or when FILE is -, read standard input.
   9 
  10     -h          display this help and exit
  11     -f OUTFILE  write the result to OUTFILE instead of standard output.
  12     -v          verbose mode. Can be used multiple times for increased
  13                 verbosity.
  14 EOF
  15 }
  16 
  17 # Initialize our own variables:
  18 output_file=""
  19 verbose=0
  20 
  21 OPTIND=1
  22 # Resetting OPTIND is necessary if getopts was used previously in the script.
  23 # It is a good idea to make OPTIND local if you process options in a function.
  24 
  25 while getopts "hvf:" opt; do
  26     case "$opt" in
  27         h)
  28             show_help
  29             exit 0
  30             ;;
  31         v)  verbose=$((verbose+1))
  32             ;;
  33         f)  output_file=$OPTARG
  34             ;;
  35         '?')
  36             show_help >&2
  37             exit 1
  38             ;;
  39     esac
  40 done
  41 shift "$((OPTIND-1))" # Shift off the options and optional --.
  42 
  43 # Everything that's left in "$@" is a non-option.  In our case, a FILE to process.
  44 printf 'verbose=<%d>\noutput_file=<%s>\nLeftovers:\n' "$verbose" "$output_file"
  45 printf '<%s>\n' "$@"
  46 
  47 # End of file

There is a getopts tutorial which explains what all of the syntax and variables mean. In bash, there is also help getopts, which might be informative.

The advantages of getopts:

  1. It's portable, and will work in any POSIX shell e.g. dash.
  2. It can handle things like -vf filename in the expected Unix way, automatically.

  3. It understands -- as the option terminator and more generally makes sure, options are parsed like for any standard command.

  4. With some implementations, the error messages will be localised in the language of the user.

The disadvantages of getopts:

  1. (Except for ksh93 getopts) it can only handle short options (-h, not --help) without trickery.

  2. It cannot handle options with optional arguments à la GNU.
  3. Options are coded in at least 2, probably 3 places -- in the call to getopts, in the case statement that processes them, and in the help/usage message that documents them.

For other, more complicated ways of option parsing, see ComplexOptionParsing.

Argbash

Argbash is a simple-to-use yet feature-rich code generator that can either generate the parsing code for your script, tailor-made. The project features extensive documentation.

The sample project from above (script accepting a -f|--file|--verbose|...) would use the following template:

   1 #!/bin/bash
   2 
   3 # ARG_OPTIONAL_SINGLE([file],[f],[input file])
   4 # ARG_VERBOSE()
   5 # ARG_POSITIONAL_DOUBLEDASH()
   6 # ARG_LEFTOVERS([other args])
   7 # ARGBASH_GO()
   8 
   9 # [ <-- needed because of Argbash
  10 
  11 if [ "$_arg_verbose" -gt 0 ]; then
  12         echo "Input file: $_arg_file"
  13         echo "Other args: ${_arg_leftovers[*]}"
  14 fi
  15 
  16 # ] <-- needed because of Argbash

Then, executing the result script as ./script.sh -f my-file --verbose -- one two three --file foo would yield

    Input file: foo
    other args: one two three

The project also features a quickstart utility that can generate a minimal template for you like this: argbash-init --opt file --pos arg-positional | argbash - -o basic_script.sh && ./basic_script.sh -h

<The general help message of my script>
Usage: ./basic_script.sh [--file <arg>] [-h|--help] <arg-positional>
        <arg-positional>: <arg-positional's help message goes here>
        --file: <file's help message goes here> (no default)
        -h,--help: Prints help

One can then just fine-tune the template and get a script with argument parsing capabilities with little effort.


CategoryShell

BashFAQ/035 (last edited 2024-02-26 07:51:38 by larryv)