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IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" @(#)getopt.3 8.5 (Berkeley) 4/27/95 .\" $FreeBSD: src/lib/libc/stdlib/getopt_long.3,v 1.3 2002/12/18 12:45:10 ru Exp $ .\" .Dd April 1, 2000 .Dt GETOPT_LONG 3 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm getopt_long .Nd get long options from command line argument list .Sh LIBRARY .Lb libc .Sh SYNOPSIS .In getopt.h .Ft int .Fo getopt_long .Fa "int argc" "char * const *argv" "const char *optstring" .Fa "struct option *long options" "int *index" .Fc .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Fn getopt_long function is similar to .Xr getopt 3 but it accepts options in two forms: words and characters. The .Fn getopt_long function provides a superset of the functionality of .Xr getopt 3 . The .Fn getopt_long function can be used in two ways. In the first way, every long option understood by the program has a corresponding short option, and the option structure is only used to translate from long options to short options. When used in this fashion, .Fn getopt_long behaves identically to .Xr getopt 3 . This is a good way to add long option processing to an existing program with the minimum of rewriting. .Pp In the second mechanism, a long option sets a flag in the .Vt option structure passed, or will store a pointer to the command line argument in the .Vt option structure passed to it for options that take arguments. Additionally, the long option's argument may be specified as a single argument with an equal sign, e.g., .Pp .Dl "myprogram --myoption=somevalue" .Pp When a long option is processed, the call to .Fn getopt_long will return 0. For this reason, long option processing without shortcuts is not backwards compatible with .Xr getopt 3 . .Pp It is possible to combine these methods, providing for long options processing with short option equivalents for some options. Less frequently used options would be processed as long options only. .Pp The .Fn getopt_long call requires a structure to be initialized describing the long options. The structure is: .Bd -literal -offset indent struct option { char *name; int has_arg; int *flag; int val; }; .Ed .Pp The .Va name field should contain the option name without the leading double dash. .Pp The .Va has_arg field should be one of: .Pp .Bl -tag -width ".Dv optional_argument" -offset indent -compact .It Dv no_argument no argument to the option is expect .It Dv required_argument an argument to the option is required .It Li optional_argument an argument to the option may be presented. .El .Pp If .Va flag is not .Dv NULL , then the integer pointed to by it will be set to the value in the .Va val field. If the .Va flag field is .Dv NULL , then the .Va val field will be returned. Setting .Va flag to .Dv NULL and setting .Va val to the corresponding short option will make this function act just like .Xr getopt 3 . .Sh EXAMPLES .Bd -literal -compact extern char *optarg; extern int optind; int bflag, ch, fd; int daggerset; /* options descriptor */ static struct option longopts[] = { { "buffy", no_argument, 0, 'b' }, { "floride", required_argument, 0, 'f' }, { "daggerset", no_argument, \*[Am]daggerset, 1 }, { 0, 0, 0, 0 } }; bflag = 0; while ((ch = getopt_long(argc, argv, "bf:", longopts, NULL)) != -1) switch(ch) { case 'b': bflag = 1; break; case 'f': if ((fd = open(optarg, O_RDONLY, 0)) \*[Lt] 0) { (void)fprintf(stderr, "myname: %s: %s\en", optarg, strerror(errno)); exit(1); } break; case 0: if(daggerset) { fprintf(stderr,"Buffy will use her dagger to " "apply floride to dracula's teeth\en"); } break; case '?': default: usage(); } argc -= optind; argv += optind; .Ed .Sh IMPLEMENTATION DIFFERENCES This section describes differences to the .Tn GNU implementation found in glibc-2.1.3: .Bl -bullet .It Handling of .Ql - as first char of option string in presence of environment variable .Ev POSIXLY_CORRECT : .Bl -tag -width ".Nx" .It Tn GNU ignores .Ev POSIXLY_CORRECT and returns non-options as arguments to option '\e1'. .It Nx honors .Ev POSIXLY_CORRECT and stops at the first non-option. .El .It Handling of .Ql :: in options string in presence of .Ev POSIXLY_CORRECT : .Bl -tag -width ".Nx" .It Both .Tn GNU and .Nx ignore .Ev POSIXLY_CORRECT here and take .Ql :: to mean the preceding option takes an optional argument. .El .It Return value in case of missing argument if first character (after .Ql + or .Ql - ) in option string is not .Ql \&: : .Bl -tag -width ".Nx" .It Tn GNU returns .Ql \&? .It Nx returns .Ql \&: (since .Nx Ns 's .Fn getopt does). .El .It Handling of .Ql --a in getopt: .Bl -tag -width ".Nx" .It Tn GNU parses this as option .Ql - , option .Ql a . .It Nx parses this as .Ql -- , and returns \-1 (ignoring the .Ql a ) . (Because the original .Fn getopt does.) .El .It Setting of .Va optopt for long options with .Va flag != .Dv NULL : .Bl -tag -width ".Nx" .It Tn GNU sets .Va optopt to .Va val . .It Nx sets .Va optopt to 0 (since .Va val would never be returned). .El .It Handling of .Ql -W with .Ql W ; in option string in .Fn getopt (not .Fn getopt_long ) : .Bl -tag -width ".Nx" .It Tn GNU causes a segfault. .It Nx returns \-1, with .Va optind pointing past the argument of .Ql -W (as if .Ql "-W arg" were .Ql --arg , and thus .Ql -- had been found). .\" How should we treat W; in the option string when called via .\" getopt? Ignore the ';' or treat it as a ':'? Issue a warning? .El .It Setting of .Va optarg for long options without an argument that are invoked via .Ql -W .Ql ( W ; in option string): .Bl -tag -width ".Nx" .It Tn GNU sets .Va optarg to the option name (the argument of .Ql -W ) . .It Nx sets .Va optarg to .Dv NULL (the argument of the long option). .El .It Handling of .Ql -W with an argument that is not (a prefix to) a known long option .Ql ( W ; in option string): .Bl -tag -width ".Nx" .It Tn GNU returns .Ql -W with .Va optarg set to the unknown option. .It Nx treats this as an error (unknown option) and returns .Ql \&? with .Va optopt set to 0 and .Va optarg set to .Dv NULL (as .Tn GNU Ns 's man page documents). .El .It The error messages are different. .It .Nx does not permute the argument vector at the same points in the calling sequence as .Tn GNU does. The aspects normally used by the caller (ordering after \-1 is returned, value of .Va optind relative to current positions) are the same, though. (We do fewer variable swaps.) .El .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr getopt 3 .Sh HISTORY The .Fn getopt_long function first appeared in .Tn GNU libiberty. The first .Nx implementation appeared in 1.5. .Sh BUGS The implementation can completely replace .Xr getopt 3 , but right now we are using separate code.