


      GETOPT(1)                   (UNIX 5.0)                  GETOPT(1)



      NAME
           getopt - parse command options

      SYNTAX
           set -- `getopt optstring $*`

      DESCRIPTION
           Getopt breaks up options in command lines for easy parsing
           and option-checking by shell procedures.  Optstring is a
           string of recognized option letters (see getopt(3C)); if a
           letter is followed by a colon, the option is expected to
           have an argument which may or may not be separated from it
           by white space.  The special option -- delimits the end of
           the options.  If it is used explicitly, getopt will
           recognize it; otherwise, getopt will generate it; in either
           case, getopt will place it at the end of the options.  The
           shell's positional parameters ($1 $2 ...) are reset so that
           each option is preceded by a - and is in its own positional
           parameter; each option argument is also parsed into its own
           positional parameter.

      EXAMPLE
           The following code fragment shows how one might process the
           arguments for a command that can take the options a or b, as
           well as the option o, which requires an argument:

                set -- `getopt abo: $*`
                if [ $? != 0 ]
                then
                     echo $USAGE
                     exit 2
                fi
                for i in $*
                do
                     case $i in
                     -a | -b)  FLAG=$i; shift;;
                     -o)       OARG=$2; shift 2;;
                     --)       shift; break;;
                     esac
                done

           This code will accept any of the following as equivalent:

                cmd -aoarg file file
                cmd -a -o arg file file
                cmd -oarg -a file file
                cmd -a -oarg -- file file

      SEE ALSO
           sh(1), getopt(3C).

      DIAGNOSTICS



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      GETOPT(1)                   (UNIX 5.0)                  GETOPT(1)



           Getopt prints an error message on the standard error when it
           encounters an option letter not included in optstring.





















































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