.\"
.\" Sun Microsystems, Inc. gratefully acknowledges The Open Group for
.\" permission to reproduce portions of its copyrighted documentation.
.\" Original documentation from The Open Group can be obtained online at
.\" http://www.opengroup.org/bookstore/.
.\"
.\" The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and The Open
.\" Group, have given us permission to reprint portions of their
.\" documentation.
.\"
.\" In the following statement, the phrase ``this text'' refers to portions
.\" of the system documentation.
.\"
.\" Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
.\" in the SunOS Reference Manual, from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2004 Edition,
.\" Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System
.\" Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 6,
.\" Copyright (C) 2001-2004 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
.\" Engineers, Inc and The Open Group.  In the event of any discrepancy
.\" between these versions and the original IEEE and The Open Group
.\" Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee
.\" document.  The original Standard can be obtained online at
.\" http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html.
.\"
.\" This notice shall appear on any product containing this material.
.\"
.\" The contents of this file are subject to the terms of the
.\" Common Development and Distribution License (the "License").
.\" You may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
.\"
.\" You can obtain a copy of the license at usr/src/OPENSOLARIS.LICENSE
.\" or http://www.opensolaris.org/os/licensing.
.\" See the License for the specific language governing permissions
.\" and limitations under the License.
.\"
.\" When distributing Covered Code, include this CDDL HEADER in each
.\" file and include the License file at usr/src/OPENSOLARIS.LICENSE.
.\" If applicable, add the following below this CDDL HEADER, with the
.\" fields enclosed by brackets "[]" replaced with your own identifying
.\" information: Portions Copyright [yyyy] [name of copyright owner]
.\"
.\"
.\" Copyright 1989 AT&T
.\" Copyright 1992, X/Open Company Limited All Rights Reserved
.\" Portions Copyright (c) 1982-2007 AT&T Knowledge Ventures
.\" Copyright (c) 2007 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All Rights Reserved
.\"
.TH GETOPTS 1 "Nov 2, 2007"
.SH NAME
getopts \- parse utility options
.SH SYNOPSIS
.LP
.nf
\fB/usr/bin/getopts\fR \fIoptstring\fR \fIname\fR [\fIarg\fR...]
.fi

.SS "sh"
.LP
.nf
\fBgetopts\fR \fIoptstring\fR \fIname\fR [\fIargument\fR]...
.fi

.SS "ksh"
.LP
.nf
\fBgetopts\fR \fIoptstring\fR \fIname\fR [\fIarg\fR]...
.fi

.SS "ksh93"
.LP
.nf
\fBgetopts\fR [\fB-a\fR \fIname\fR] \fIoptstring\fR \fIname\fR [\fIarg\fR]...
.fi

.SH DESCRIPTION
.SS "/usr/bin/getopts"
.sp
.LP
The \fBgetopts\fR utility can be used to retrieve options and option-arguments
from a list of parameters.
.sp
.LP
Each time it is invoked, the \fBgetopts\fR utility places the value of the next
option in the shell variable specified by the \fIname\fR operand and the index
of the next argument to be processed in the shell variable \fBOPTIND\fR.
Whenever the shell is invoked, \fBOPTIND\fR is initialized to \fB1\fR.
.sp
.LP
When the option requires an option-argument, the \fBgetopts\fR utility places
it in the shell variable \fBOPTARG\fR. If no option was found, or if the option
that was found does not have an option-argument, \fBOPTARG\fR is unset.
.sp
.LP
If an option character not contained in the \fIoptstring\fR operand is found
where an option character is expected, the shell variable specified by
\fIname\fR is set to the question-mark \fB(\fR \fB?\fR \fB)\fR character. In
this case, if the first character in \fIoptstring\fR is a colon (\fB:\fR, the
shell variable \fBOPTARG\fR is set to the option character found, but no output
is written to standard error; otherwise, the shell variable \fBOPTARG\fR is
unset and a diagnostic message is written to standard error. This condition is
considered to be an error detected in the way arguments were presented to the
invoking application, but is not an error in \fBgetopts\fR processing.
.sp
.LP
If an option-argument is missing:
.RS +4
.TP
.ie t \(bu
.el o
If the first character of \fIoptstring\fR is a colon, the shell variable
specified by \fIname\fR is set to the colon character and the shell variable
\fBOPTARG\fR is set to the option character found.
.RE
.RS +4
.TP
.ie t \(bu
.el o
Otherwise, the shell variable specified by \fIname\fR is set to the
question-mark character (\fB?\fR), the shell variable \fBOPTARG\fR is unset,
and a diagnostic message is written to standard error. This condition is
considered to be an error detected in the way arguments were presented to the
invoking application, but is not an error in \fBgetopts\fR processing; a
diagnostic message is written as stated, but the exit status is zero.
.RE
.sp
.LP
When the end of options is encountered, the \fBgetopts\fR utility exits with a
return value greater than zero; the shell variable \fBOPTIND\fR is set to the
index of the first non-option-argument, where the first \fB\(mi\|\(mi\fR
argument is considered to be an option-argument if there are no other
non-option-arguments appearing before it, or the value \fB$#\fR + 1 if there
are no non-option-arguments; the \fIname\fR variable is set to the
question-mark character. Any of the following identifies the end of options:
the special option \fB\(mi\|\(mi\fR, finding an argument that does not begin
with a \fB\(mi\fR, or encountering an error.
.sp
.LP
The shell variables \fBOPTIND\fR and \fBOPTARG\fR are local to the caller of
\fBgetopts\fR and are not exported by default.
.sp
.LP
The shell variable specified by the \fIname\fR operand, \fBOPTIND\fR and
\fBOPTARG\fR affect the current shell execution environment.
.sp
.LP
If the application sets \fBOPTIND\fR to the value 1, a new set of parameters
can be used: either the current positional parameters or new \fIarg\fR values.
Any other attempt to invoke \fBgetopts\fR multiple times in a single shell
execution environment with parameters (positional parameters or \fIarg\fR
operands) that are not the same in all invocations, or with an \fBOPTIND\fR
value modified to be a value other than 1, produces unspecified results.
.SS "sh"
.sp
.LP
\fBgetopts\fR is a built-in Bourne shell command used to parse positional
parameters and to check for valid options. See \fBsh\fR(1). It supports all
applicable rules of the command syntax standard (see Rules 3-10,
\fBIntro\fR(1)). It should be used in place of the \fBgetopt\fR command.
.sp
.LP
\fIoptstring\fR must contain the option letters the command using \fBgetopts\fR
recognizes. If a letter is followed by a colon, the option is expected to have
an argument, or group of arguments, which must be separated from it by white
space.
.sp
.LP
Each time it is invoked, \fBgetopts\fR places the next option in the shell
variable \fIname\fR and the index of the next argument to be processed in the
shell variable \fBOPTIND\fR. Whenever the shell or a shell script is invoked,
\fBOPTIND\fR is initialized to \fB1\fR.
.sp
.LP
When an option requires an option-argument, \fBgetopts\fR places it in the
shell variable \fBOPTARG\fR.
.sp
.LP
If an illegal option is encountered, \fB?\fR is placed in \fIname\fR.
.sp
.LP
When the end of options is encountered, \fBgetopts\fR exits with a non-zero
exit status. The special option \fB-\fR can be used to delimit the end of the
options.
.sp
.LP
By default, \fBgetopts\fR parses the positional parameters. If extra arguments
(\fIargument\fR .\|.\|.) are specified on the \fBgetopts\fR command line,
\fBgetopts\fR parses them instead.
.sp
.LP
\fB/usr/lib/getoptcvt\fR reads the shell script in \fIfilename\fR, converts it
to use \fBgetopts\fR instead of \fBgetopt\fR, and writes the results on the
standard output.
.sp
.LP
So that all new commands adhere to the command syntax standard described in
\fBIntro\fR(1), they should use \fBgetopts\fR or \fBgetopt\fR to parse
positional parameters and check for options that are valid for that command.
.sp
.LP
\fBgetopts\fR prints an error message on the standard error when it encounters
an option letter not included in \fIoptstring\fR.
.sp
.LP
Although the following command syntax rule (see \fBIntro\fR(1)) relaxations are
permitted under the current implementation, they should not be used because
they can not be supported in future releases of the system. As in the EXAMPLES
section below, \fB-a\fR and \fB-b\fR are options, and the option \fB-o\fR
requires an option-argument.
.sp
.LP
The following example violates Rule 5: options with option-arguments must not
be grouped with other options:
.sp
.in +2
.nf
example% \fBcmd -aboxxx filename\fR
.fi
.in -2
.sp

.sp
.LP
The following example violates Rule 6: there must be white space after an
option that takes an option-argument:
.sp
.in +2
.nf
example% \fBcmd -ab oxxx filename\fR
.fi
.in -2
.sp

.sp
.LP
Changing the value of the shell variable \fBOPTIND\fR or parsing different sets
of arguments can lead to unexpected results.
.SS "ksh"
.sp
.LP
Checks \fIarg\fR for legal options. If \fIarg\fR is omitted, the positional
parameters are used. An option argument begins with a \fB+\fR or a
\fB\(mi\fR\&. An option not beginning with \fB+\fR or \fB\(mi\fR or the
argument \fB-\fR ends the options. \fIoptstring\fR contains the letters that
\fBgetopts\fR recognizes. If a letter is followed by a \fB:\fR, that option is
expected to have an argument. The options can be separated from the argument by
blanks.
.sp
.LP
\fBgetopts\fR places the next option letter it finds inside variable \fIname\fR
each time it is invoked with a \fB+\fR prepended when \fIarg\fR begins with a
\fB+\fR. The index of the next \fIarg\fR is stored in \fBOPTIND\fR. The option
argument, if any, gets stored in \fBOPTARG\fR.
.sp
.LP
A leading \fB:\fR in \fIoptstring\fR causes \fBgetopts\fR to store the letter
of an invalid option in \fBOPTARG\fR, and to set \fIname\fR to \fB?\fR for an
unknown option and to \fB:\fR when a required option is missing. Otherwise,
\fBgetopts\fR prints an error message. The exit status is \fBnon-zero\fR when
there are no more options.
.sp
.LP
\fBgetopts\fR supports both traditional single-character short options and long
options defined by Sun's Command Line Interface Paradigm (\fBCLIP\fR).
.sp
.LP
Each long option is an alias for a short option and is specified in parentheses
following its equivalent short option. For example, you can specify the long
option \fBfile\fR as an alias for the short option \fBf\fR using the following
script line:
.sp
.in +2
.nf
getopts "f(file)" opt
.fi
.in -2
.sp

.sp
.LP
Precede long options on the command line with \fB--\fR or \fB++\fR. In the
example above, \fB--file\fR on the command line would be the equivalent of
\fB-f\fR, and \fB++file\fR on the command line would be the equivalent of
\fB+f\fR.
.sp
.LP
Each short option can have multiple long option equivalents, although this is
in violation of the CLIP specification and should be used with caution. You
must enclose each long option equivalent parentheses, as follows:
.sp
.in +2
.nf
getopts "f:(file)(input-file)o:(output-file)"
.fi
.in -2
.sp

.sp
.LP
In the above example, both \fB--file\fR and \fB--input-file\fR are the
equivalent of \fB-f\fR, and \fB--output-file\fR is the equivalent of \fB-o\fR.
.sp
.LP
The variable name is always set to a short option. When a long option is
specified on the command line, name is set to the short-option equivalent.
.sp
.LP
For a further discussion of the Korn shell's \fBgetopts\fR built-in command,
see the previous discussion in the Bourne shell (\fBsh\fR) section of this
manpage.
.SS "ksh93"
.sp
.LP
The \fBgetopts\fR utility can be used to retrieve options and arguments from a
list of arguments specified by \fIarg\fRs or the positional parameters if
\fIarg\fR is omitted. It can also generate usage messages and a manual page for
the command based on the information in \fIoptstring\fR.
.sp
.LP
Each time it is invoked, the \fBgetopts\fR utility places the value of the next
option in the shell variable specified by the \fIname\fR operand and the index
of the next argument to be processed in the shell variable \fBOPTIND\fR. When
the shell is invoked \fBOPTIND\fR is initialized to \fB1\fR. When an option
requires or permits an option argument, \fBgetopts\fR places the option
argument in the shell variable \fBOPTARG\fR. Otherwise \fBOPTARG\fR is set to
\fB1\fR when the option is set and \fB0\fR when the option is \fBunset\fR.
.sp
.LP
The \fIoptstring\fR string consists of alphanumeric characters, the special
characters \fB+\fR, \fB-\fR, \fB?\fR, \fB:\fR, and SPACE or character groups
enclosed in \fB[...]\fR. Character groups can be nested in \fB{...}\fR. Outside
of a \fB[...]\fR group, a single NEWLINE followed by zero or more blanks is
ignored. One or more blank lines separate the options from the command argument
synopsis.
.sp
.LP
Each \fB[...]\fR group consists of an optional label, optional attributes
separated by \fB:\fR, and an optional description string following \fB?\fR. The
characters from the \fB?\fR to the end of the next \fB]\fR are ignored for
option parsing and short usage messages. They are used for generating verbose
help or man pages. The \fB:\fR character can not appear in the label. The
\fB?\fR character must be specified as \fB??\fR in the label and the \fB]\fR
character must be specified as \fB]]\fR in the description string. Text between
two \fB\eb\fR (backspace) characters indicates that the text should be
emboldened when displayed. Text between two \fB\ea\fR (bell) characters
indicates that the text should be emphasized or italicized when displayed. Text
between two \fB\ev\fR (vertical tab) characters indicates that the text should
displayed in a fixed-width font. Text between two \fB\ef\fR (form feed)
characters is replaced by the output from the shell function whose name is that
of the enclosed text.
.sp
.LP
All output from this interface is written to the standard error.
.sp
.LP
There are several group types:
.RS +4
.TP
1.
A group of the form
.sp
.in +2
.nf
\fB[-[\fR\fIversion\fR][\fIflag\fR[\fInumber\fR\fB]]...[?\fR\fItext\fR\fB]]\fR
.fi
.in -2
.sp

which appears as the first group enables the extended interface.
.sp
\fIversion\fR specifies the interface version, currently 1. The latest version
is assumed if version is omitted. Future enhancements can increment
\fIversion\fR, but all versions are supported. \fItext\fR typically specifies
an SCCS or CVS identification string. Zero or more flags with optional number
values can be specified to control option parsing. The flags are:
.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fBc\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 5n
Cache this \fIoptstring\fR for multiple passes. Used to optimize built-ins that
can be called many times within the same process.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fBi\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 5n
Ignore this \fIoptstring\fR when generating help. Used when combining
\fIoptstring\fR values from multiple passes.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fBl\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 5n
Display only long option names in help messages.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fBo\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 5n
The \fB-\fR option character prefix is optional. This supports the obsolete
\fBps\fR(1) option syntax.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fBp\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 5n
The number specifies the number of \fB-\fR characters that must prefix long
option names. The default is \fB2\fR. \fB0\fR, \fB1\fR or \fB2\fR are accepted,
for example \fBp0\fR for \fBdd\fR(8) and \fBp1\fR for \fBfind\fR(1).
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fBs\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 5n
The number specifies the manual page section number, \fB1\fR by default.
.RE

.RE
.RS +4
.TP
2.
An option specification of the form
\fB[\fR\fIoption\fR\fB[!][=\fR\fInumber\fR\fB][:\fR\fIlongname\fR\fB][?\fR\fItext\fR\fB]]\fR.
In this case the first field is the option character, which is the value
returned in the name operand when the option is matched. If there is no option
character then a two or more digit number should be specified. This number is
returned as the value of the name operand if the long option is matched. If
option is followed by a \fB!\fR then the option character sense is the inverse
of the \fIlongname\fR sense. For options that do not take values \fBOPTARG\fR
is set to \fB0\fR for \fB!\fR inverted option characters and \fB1\fR
otherwise. \fI=number\fR optionally specifies a number to be returned in the
\fIname\fR operand instead of the option character. A \fIlongname\fR is
specified by \fB--longname\fR and is matched by the shortest non-ambiguous
prefix of all long options. An \fB*\fR in the \fBlongname\fR field indicates
that only characters up to that point need to match, provided any additional
characters match exactly. The enclosing \fB[\fR and \fB]\fR can be omitted for
an option that does not have a \fBlongname\fR or descriptive text.
.RE
.RS +4
.TP
3.
An option argument specification. Options that take arguments can be
followed by \fB:\fR, indicating a string value or \fB#\fR, indicating a numeric
value, and an option argument specification. An option argument specification
consists of the option argument name as field 1. The remaining : separated
fields are a type name and zero or more of the special attribute words
\fBlistof\fR, \fBoneof\fR, and \fBignorecase\fR. A default option value can be
specified in the final field as :=default. The option argument specification
can be followed by a list of option value descriptions enclosed in braces. A
long option that takes an argument is specified as
\fB--longname=\fR\fIvalue\fR. If the \fB:\fR or \fB#\fR is followed by \fB?\fR,
the option argument is optional. If only the option character form is specified
then the optional argument value is not set if the next argument starts with
\fB-\fR or \fB+\fR.
.RE
.RS +4
.TP
4.
An option value description.
.RE
.RS +4
.TP
5.
An argument specification. A list of valid option argument values can be
specified by enclosing them inside a \fB{...}\fR following the option argument
specification. Each of the permitted values can be specified with a \fB[...]\fR
containing the value followed by a description.
.RE
.RS +4
.TP
6.
A group of the form \fB[+\fR\fB\e\fR\fIn\fR\fB\&...]\fR displays the
characters representing \fB\&...\fR in fixed-width font without adding line
breaks.
.RE
.RS +4
.TP
7.
A group of the form \fB[+\fR\fIname\fR\fB?\fR\fItext\fR\fB]\fR specifies a
section name with descriptive text. If \fIname\fR is omitted, \fItext\fR is
placed in a new paragraph.
.RE
.RS +4
.TP
8.
A group of the form \fB[-\fR\fIname\fR\fB?\fR\fItext\fR\fB]\fR specifies
entries for the \fBIMPLEMENTATION\fR section.
.RE
.sp
.LP
If the leading character of \fIoptstring\fR is \fB+\fR, arguments beginning
with \fB+\fR are also be considered options.
.sp
.LP
A leading \fB:\fR character or a : following a leading \fB+\fR in
\fIoptstring\fR affects the way errors are handled. If an option character or
\fBlongname\fR argument not specified in \fIoptstring\fR is encountered when
processing options, the shell variable whose name is name is set to the \fB?\fR
character. The shell variable \fBOPTARG\fR is set to the character found. If an
option argument is missing or has an invalid value, then name is set to the
\fB:\fR character and the shell variable \fBOPTARG\fR is set to the option
character found. Without the leading \fB:\fR, \fIname\fR is set to the \fB?\fR
character, \fBOPTARG\fR is unset, and an error message is written to standard
error when errors are encountered.
.sp
.LP
The end of options occurs when:
.RS +4
.TP
1.
The special argument \fB--\fR is encountered.
.RE
.RS +4
.TP
2.
An argument that does not begin with a \fB-\fR is encountered.
.RE
.RS +4
.TP
3.
A help argument is specified.
.RE
.RS +4
.TP
4.
An error is encountered.
.RE
.sp
.LP
If \fBOPTIND\fR is set to the value \fB1\fR, a new set of arguments can be
used.
.sp
.LP
\fBgetopts\fR can also be used to generate help messages containing command
usage and detailed descriptions. Specify \fIargs\fR as:
.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB-?\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 13n
Use this to generate a usage synopsis.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB--??\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 13n
Use this to generate a verbose usage message.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB--??man\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 13n
Use this to generate a formatted manual page.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB--??api\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 13n
Use this to generate an easy to parse usage message.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB--??html\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 13n
Use this to generate a man page in \fBhtml\fR format.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB--??nroff\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 13n
Use this to generate a man page in \fBnroff\fR format.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB--??usage\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 13n
Use this to list the current \fBoptstring\fR.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB--???name\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 13n
Use this to list \fBversion=\fR\fIn\fR, where \fIn\fR is greater than \fB0\fR,
if the option \fIname\fR is recognized by \fBgetopts\fR.
.RE

.sp
.LP
When the end of options is encountered, \fBgetopts\fR exits with a
\fBnon-zero\fR return value and the variable \fBOPTIND\fR is set to the index
of the first non-option argument.
.SH OPTIONS
.SS "ksh93"
.sp
.LP
The following options are supported by \fBksh93\fR:
.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB-a\fR \fIname\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 11n
Use \fIname\fR instead of the command name in usage messages.
.RE

.SH OPERANDS
.sp
.LP
The following operands are supported:
.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fIoptstring\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 13n
A string containing the option characters recognised by the utility invoking
\fBgetopts\fR. If a character is followed by a colon, the option is expected to
have an argument, which should be supplied as a separate argument. Applications
should specify an option character and its option-argument as separate
arguments, but \fBgetopts\fR interprets the characters following an option
character requiring arguments as an argument whether or not this is done. An
explicit null option-argument need not be recognised if it is not supplied as a
separate argument when \fBgetopts\fR is invoked; see \fBgetopt\fR(3C). The
characters question-mark (\fB?\fR) and colon (\fB:\fR) must not be used as
option characters by an application. The use of other option characters that
are not alphanumeric produces unspecified results. If the option-argument is
not supplied as a separate argument from the option character, the value in
\fBOPTARG\fR is stripped of the option character and the \fB\(mi\fR\&. The
first character in \fIoptstring\fR determines how \fBgetopts\fR behaves if an
option character is not known or an option-argument is missing.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fIname\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 13n
The name of a shell variable that is set by the \fBgetopts\fR utility to the
option character that was found.
.RE

.sp
.LP
The \fBgetopts\fR utility by default parses positional parameters passed to the
invoking shell procedure. If \fIarg\fRs are specified, they are parsed instead
of the positional parameters.
.SH USAGE
.sp
.LP
Since \fBgetopts\fR affects the current shell execution environment, it is
generally provided as a shell regular built-in. If it is called in a subshell
or separate utility execution environment, such as one of the following:
.sp
.in +2
.nf
      (getopts abc value "$@")
       nohup getopts ...
       find . -exec getopts ... \e;
.fi
.in -2

.sp
.LP
it does not affect the shell variables in the caller's environment.
.sp
.LP
Notice that shell functions share \fBOPTIND\fR with the calling shell even
though the positional parameters are changed. Functions that want to use
\fBgetopts\fR to parse their arguments usually want to save the value of
\fBOPTIND\fR on entry and restore it before returning. However, there are cases
when a function wants to change \fBOPTIND\fR for the calling shell.
.SH EXAMPLES
.LP
\fBExample 1 \fRParsing and Displaying Arguments
.sp
.LP
The following example script parses and displays its arguments:

.sp
.in +2
.nf
aflag=
bflag=
while getopts ab: name
do
     case $name in
     a)      aflag=1;;
     b)      bflag=1
             bval="$OPTARG";;
     ?)     printf "Usage: %s: [-a] [-b value] args\en"  $0
            exit 2;;
     esac
done
if [ ! -z "$aflag" ]; then
   printf "Option -a specified\en"
fi
if [ ! -z "$bflag" ]; then
     printf 'Option -b "%s" specified\en' "$bval"
fi
shift $(($OPTIND - 1))
printf "Remaining arguments are: %s\en" "$*"
.fi
.in -2

.LP
\fBExample 2 \fRProcessing Arguments for a Command with Options
.sp
.LP
The following fragment of a shell program processes the arguments for a command
that can take the options \fB-a\fR or \fB-b\fR. It also processes the option
\fB-o\fR, which requires an option-argument:

.sp
.in +2
.nf
while getopts abo: c
do
      case $c in
     a | b)   FLAG=$c;;
     o)       OARG=$OPTARG;;
     \e?)      echo $USAGE
        exit 2;;
     esac
done
shift `expr $OPTIND \(mi 1`
.fi
.in -2

.LP
\fBExample 3 \fREquivalent Code Expressions
.sp
.LP
This code example accepts any of the following as equivalent:

.sp
.in +2
.nf
cmd -a -b -o "xxx z yy" filename
cmd -a -b -o "xxx z yy" -- filename
cmd -ab -o xxx,z,yy filename
cmd -ab -o "xxx z yy" filename
cmd -o xxx,z,yy -b -a filename
.fi
.in -2
.sp

.SH ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
.sp
.LP
See \fBenviron\fR(7) for descriptions of the following environment variables
that affect the execution of \fBgetopts\fR: \fBLANG\fR, \fBLC_ALL\fR,
\fBLC_CTYPE\fR, \fBLC_MESSAGES\fR, and \fBNLSPATH\fR.
.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fBOPTIND\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 10n
This variable is used by \fBgetopts\fR as the index of the next argument to be
processed.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fBOPTARG\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 10n
This variable is used by \fBgetopts\fR to store the argument if an option is
using arguments.
.RE

.SH EXIT STATUS
.sp
.LP
The following exit values are returned:
.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB0\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 6n
An option, specified or unspecified by \fIoptstring\fR, was found.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB>0\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 6n
The end of options was encountered or an error occurred.
.RE

.SS "ksh93"
.sp
.LP
The following exit values are returned by \fBksh93\fR:
.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB0\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 5n
A specified option was found.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB1\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 5n
An end of options was encountered.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB2\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 5n
A usage or information message was generated.
.RE

.SH ATTRIBUTES
.sp
.LP
See \fBattributes\fR(7) for descriptions of the following attributes:
.SS "/usr/bin/getopts, sh, ksh"
.sp

.sp
.TS
box;
c | c
l | l .
ATTRIBUTE TYPE	ATTRIBUTE VALUE
_
Interface Stability	Committed
_
Standard	See \fBstandards\fR(7).
.TE

.SS "ksh93"
.sp

.sp
.TS
box;
c | c
l | l .
ATTRIBUTE TYPE	ATTRIBUTE VALUE
_
Interface Stability	Uncommitted
.TE

.SH SEE ALSO
.sp
.LP
.BR Intro (1),
.BR getoptcvt (1),
.BR ksh (1),
.BR ksh93 (1),
.BR ps (1),
.BR sh (1),
.BR getopt (3C),
.BR attributes (7),
.BR environ (7),
.BR standards (7)
.SH DIAGNOSTICS
.sp
.LP
Whenever an error is detected and the first character in the \fIoptstring\fR
operand is not a colon (\fB:\fR), a diagnostic message is written to standard
error with the following information in an unspecified format:
.RS +4
.TP
.ie t \(bu
.el o
The invoking program name is identified in the message. The invoking program
name is the value of the shell special parameter \fB0\fR at the time the
\fBgetopts\fR utility is invoked. A name equivalent to
.sp
.in +2
.nf
\fIbasename\fR "$0"
.fi
.in -2

can be used.
.RE
.RS +4
.TP
.ie t \(bu
.el o
If an option is found that was not specified in \fIoptstring\fR, this error is
identified and the invalid option character is identified in the message.
.RE
.RS +4
.TP
.ie t \(bu
.el o
If an option requiring an option-argument is found, but an option-argument is
not found, this error is identified and the invalid option character is
identified in the message.
.RE