xref: /illumos-gate/usr/src/man/man3c/getopt_long.3c (revision 3ce5372277f4657ad0e52d36c979527c4ca22de2)
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30.\" Copyright 2018 Jason King
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33.Dd July 17, 2018
34.Dt GETOPT_LONG 3C
35.Os
36.Sh NAME
37.Nm getopt_long ,
38.Nm getopt_long_only
39.Nd get long options from command line argument list
40.Sh SYNOPSIS
41.In getopt.h
42.Vt extern char *optarg ;
43.Vt extern int optind ;
44.Vt extern int optopt ;
45.Vt extern int opterr ;
46.Ft int
47.Fo getopt_long
48.Fa "int argc"
49.Fa "char * const *argv"
50.Fa "const char *optstring"
51.Fa "const struct option *longopts"
52.Fa "int *longindex"
53.Fc
54.Ft int
55.Fo getopt_long_only
56.Fa "int argc"
57.Fa "char * const *argv"
58.Fa "const char *optstring"
59.Fa "const struct option *longopts"
60.Fa "int *longindex"
61.Fc
62.Ft int
63.Fo getopt_long_clip
64.Fa "int argc"
65.Fa "char * const *argv"
66.Fa "const char *optstring"
67.Fa "const struct option *longopts"
68.Fa "int *longindex"
69.Fc
70.Sh DESCRIPTION
71The
72.Fn getopt_long
73function is similar to
74.Xr getopt 3C
75but it accepts options in two forms: words and characters.
76The
77.Fn getopt_long
78function provides a superset of the functionality of
79.Xr getopt 3C .
80The
81.Fn getopt_long
82function
83can be used in two ways.
84.Pp
85In the first way, every long option understood
86by the program has a corresponding short option, and the option
87structure is only used to translate from long options to short
88options.
89When used in this fashion,
90.Fn getopt_long
91behaves identically to
92.Xr getopt 3C .
93This is a good way to add long option processing to an existing program
94with the minimum of rewriting.
95.Pp
96In the second mechanism, a long option sets a flag in the
97.Vt option
98structure passed, or will store a pointer to the command line argument
99in the
100.Vt option
101structure passed to it for options that take arguments.
102Additionally,
103the long option's argument may be specified as a single argument with
104an equal sign, e.g.,
105.Pp
106.Dl "myprogram --myoption=somevalue"
107.Pp
108When a long option is processed, the call to
109.Fn getopt_long
110will return 0.
111For this reason, long option processing without
112shortcuts is not backwards compatible with
113.Xr getopt 3C .
114.Pp
115It is possible to combine these methods, providing for long options
116processing with short option equivalents for some options.
117Less
118frequently used options would be processed as long options only.
119.Pp
120In
121.Fn getopt_long
122and
123.Fn getopt_long_only ,
124.Fa optstring
125acts similar to
126.Fa optstring
127in
128.Xr getopt 3C .
129In addition,
130.Fa optstring
131can begin with
132.Ql +
133or
134.Ql - .
135If
136.Fa optstring
137begins with
138.Ql + ,
139the first non-option terminates option processing.
140This is equivalent to setting the environment variable
141.Ev POSIXLY_CORRECT .
142If
143.Fa optstring
144begins with
145.Ql - ,
146non-options are treated as options to the argument
147.Ql \e1 .
148.Pp
149If
150.Fa optstring
151does not begin with
152.Ql +
153and
154.Ev POSIXLY_CORRECT
155is not set, if
156.Ql W\&;
157appears in
158.Fa optstring ,
159.Ql "-W myoption"
160is treated the same as
161.Ql "--myoption"
162and
163.Va optarg
164is set to
165.Ql myoption .
166.Pp
167In
168.Fn getopt_long_clip ,
169.Ql +
170and
171.Ql -
172are ignored at the beginning of a string.
173.Pp
174The
175.Fn getopt_long ,
176.Fn getopt_long_only ,
177and
178.Fn getopt_long_clip
179functions require a structure to be initialized describing the long
180options.
181The structure is:
182.Bd -literal -offset indent
183struct option {
184	char *name;
185	int has_arg;
186	int *flag;
187	int val;
188};
189.Ed
190.Pp
191The
192.Fa name
193field should contain the option name without the leading double dash.
194.Pp
195The
196.Fa has_arg
197field should be one of:
198.Pp
199.Bl -tag -width ".Dv optional_argument" -offset indent -compact
200.It Dv no_argument
201no argument to the option is expected
202.It Dv required_argument
203an argument to the option is required
204.It Dv optional_argument
205an argument to the option may be presented
206.El
207.Pp
208If
209.Fa flag
210is not
211.Dv NULL ,
212then the integer pointed to by it will be set to the
213value in the
214.Fa val
215field and
216.Va optopt
217will be set to
218.Sy 0 .
219If the
220.Fa flag
221field is
222.Dv NULL ,
223then the
224.Fa val
225field will be returned and
226.Va optopt
227is set to the value in the
228.Fa val
229field.
230Setting
231.Fa flag
232to
233.Dv NULL
234and setting
235.Fa val
236to the corresponding short option will make this function act just
237like
238.Xr getopt 3C .
239.Pp
240If the
241.Fa longindex
242field is not
243.Dv NULL ,
244then the integer pointed to by it will be set to the index of the long
245option relative to
246.Fa longopts .
247.Pp
248The last element of the
249.Fa longopts
250array has to be filled with zeroes.
251.Pp
252The
253.Fn getopt_long_only
254function behaves identically to
255.Fn getopt_long
256with the exception that long options may start with
257.Ql -
258in addition to
259.Ql -- .
260If an option starting with
261.Ql -
262does not match a long option but does match a single-character option,
263the single-character option is returned.
264.Pp
265The
266.Fn getopt_long_clip
267function is a variation of
268.Fn getopt_long
269except that options must also adhere to the Sun CLIP specification.
270Specifically, the major differences from
271.Fn getopt_long
272are:
273.Bl -bullet -offset indent
274.It
275All option arguments are required
276.Po
277.Dv optional_argument
278is treated the same as
279.Dv required_argument
280.Pc .
281.It
282Long options cannot be abbreviated on the command line.
283.It
284Long options must use a double dash
285.Pq Ql -- .
286.It
287Option processing stops at the first non-option.
288.It
289All long options must have an eqivalent short option (single character) and
290vice-versa.
291.It
292A leading
293.Ql +
294or
295.Ql -
296in
297.Fa optstring
298is ignored.
299.Fa optstring
300is treated as if it began after the leading
301.Ql +
302or
303.Ql - .
304.El
305.Pp
306On each call to
307.Fn getopt_long ,
308.Fn getopt_long_only ,
309or
310.Fn getopt_long ,
311.Va optind
312is set to the
313.Va argv
314index of the
315.Em next
316argument to be processed.
317.Va optind
318is initialized to
319.Sy 1
320prior to the first invocation of
321.Fn getopt_long ,
322.Fn getopt_long_only ,
323or
324.Fn getopt_long_clip .
325.Pp
326If
327.Va opterr
328is set to a non-zero value and
329.Fa optstring
330does not start with
331.Ql \&: ,
332.Fn getopt_long ,
333.Fn getopt_long_only ,
334and
335.Fn getopt_long_clip
336will print an error message to
337.Sy stderr
338when an error or invalid option is encountered.
339.Sh RETURN VALUES
340If the
341.Fa flag
342field in
343.Vt "struct option"
344is
345.Dv NULL ,
346.Fn getopt_long
347and
348.Fn getopt_long_only
349return the value specified in the
350.Fa val
351field, which is usually just the corresponding short option.
352If
353.Fa flag
354is not
355.Dv NULL ,
356these functions return 0 and store
357.Fa val
358in the location pointed to by
359.Fa flag .
360These functions return
361.Ql \&:
362if there was a missing option argument,
363.Ql \&?
364if the user specified an unknown or ambiguous option, and
365\-1 when the argument list has been exhausted.
366.Pp
367If a long option to
368.Fn getopt_long_clip
369is missing its equivalent short option (or vice-versa),\-1 is returned on the
370first call to
371.Fn getopt_long_clip ,
372and
373.Dv errno
374is set to
375.Er EINVAL .
376If
377.Va opterr
378is set to a non-zero value and
379.Fa optstring
380does not start with
381.Ql \&: ,
382an error message will be written to
383.Sy stderr .
384.Pp
385If
386.Fa optstring
387does not start with
388.Ql \&:
389and
390.Fn getopt_long ,
391.Fn getopt_long_only ,
392or
393.Fn getopt_long_clip
394return
395.Ql \&:
396or
397.Ql \&? ,
398if
399.Va opterr
400is set to a non-zero value, an error message is written to
401.Dv stderr .
402.Sh ENVIRONMENT
403The following environment variables can effect the execution of
404.Nm getopt_long ,
405.Nm getopt_long_only ,
406and
407.Nm getopt_long_clip :
408.Ev LANG ,
409.Ev LC_ALL ,
410.Ev LC_MESSAGES .
411See
412.Xr environ 5 .
413.Bl -tag -width ".Ev POSIXLY_CORRECT"
414.It Ev POSIXLY_CORRECT
415If set, option processing stops when the first non-option is found and
416a leading
417.Ql -
418or
419.Ql +
420in the
421.Fa optstring
422is ignored.
423.El
424.Sh USAGE
425Similar to
426.Xr getopt 3C ,
427since there is no unambiguous way to detect a missing option-argument except when the
428option is the last option on the command line, the
429.Fn getopt_long ,
430.Fn getopt_long_only ,
431and
432.Fn getopt_long_clip
433functions cannot fully check for mandatory arguments.
434For example, the option string
435.Ql ho\&:
436with an input of
437.Ql Fl o Fl h
438will assume that
439.Ql Fl h
440is the required argument to
441.Fl o
442instead of assuming that
443.Fl o
444is missing its option-argument.
445.Pp
446Like
447.Xr getopt 3C ,
448grouping options taking or requiring arguments with other options is a violation of the
449Basic Utility Command syntax standard (see
450.Xr Intro 1 ) .
451For example, given the option string
452.Ql cde\&: ,
453running:
454.Pp
455.Dl cmd Fl cde Ar ieio
456.Pp
457is incorrect.
458Current versions of
459.Nm getopt_long ,
460.Nm getopt_long_only ,
461and
462.Nm getopt_long_clip
463accept this, however future versions may not support this.
464The correct invocation would be:
465.Pp
466.Dl cmd Fl cd Fl e Ar ieio
467.Sh EXAMPLES
468.Bd -literal -compact
469int bflag, ch, fd;
470int daggerset;
471
472/* options descriptor */
473static struct option longopts[] = {
474	{ "buffy",	no_argument,		NULL,		'b' },
475	{ "fluoride",	required_argument,	NULL,		'f' },
476	{ "daggerset",	no_argument,		\*[Am]daggerset,	1 },
477	{ NULL,		0,			NULL,		0 }
478};
479
480bflag = 0;
481while ((ch = getopt_long(argc, argv, "bf:", longopts, NULL)) != -1) {
482	switch (ch) {
483	case 'b':
484		bflag = 1;
485		break;
486	case 'f':
487		if ((fd = open(optarg, O_RDONLY, 0)) == -1)
488			err(1, "unable to open %s", optarg);
489		break;
490	case 0:
491		if (daggerset) {
492			fprintf(stderr,"Buffy will use her dagger to "
493			    "apply fluoride to dracula's teeth\en");
494		}
495		break;
496	default:
497		usage();
498	}
499}
500argc -= optind;
501argv += optind;
502.Ed
503.Sh ERRORS
504The
505.Fn getopt_long_clip
506function will fail if:
507.Bl -tag -width EINVAL
508.It Er EINVAL
509A short option is missing a corresponding long option, or vice-versa.
510.El
511.Pp
512There are no errors defined for
513.Fn getopt_long
514and
515.Fn getopt_long_only .
516.Sh IMPLEMENTATION DIFFERENCES
517While the illumos implementations of
518.Nm getopt_long
519and
520.Nm getopt_long_only
521are broadly compatible with other implementations, the following edge cases
522have historically been known to vary among implementations:
523.Bl -bullet
524.It
525The setting of
526.Va optopt
527for long options with
528.Fa flag
529!=
530.Dv NULL
531in
532.Vt struct option .
533In illumos,
534.Va optopt
535is set to 0 (since
536.Fa val
537would never be returned).
538.It
539The setting of
540.Va optarg
541for long options without an argument that are
542invoked via
543.Ql -W
544.Ql ( W\&;
545in
546.Fa optstring ) .
547illumos sets
548.Va optarg
549to the option name (the argument of
550.Ql -W ) .
551.It
552The handling of
553.Ql -W
554with an argument that is not (a prefix to) a known
555long option
556.Ql ( W\&;
557in
558.Fa optstring ) .
559illumos treats this as an error (unknown option) and returns
560.Ql \&?
561with
562.Va optopt
563set to 0 and
564.Va optarg
565set to
566.Dv NULL .
567.It
568illumos
569may not permute the argument vector at the same points in
570the calling sequence as other implementations.
571The aspects normally used by
572the caller (ordering after \-1 is returned, the value of
573.Va optind
574relative
575to current positions) are the same, though.
576(We often do fewer variable swaps.)
577.El
578.Sh INTERFACE STABILITY
579Committed
580.Sh MT-LEVEL
581Unsafe
582.Sh SEE ALSO
583.Xr getopt 3C
584.Sh BUGS
585The
586.Fa argv
587argument is not really
588.Vt const
589as its elements may be permuted (unless
590.Ev POSIXLY_CORRECT
591is set).
592