getopt(1)                                                            getopt(1)


NAME
     getopt - parse command options

SYNOPSIS
     set -- `getopt optstring $*`

DESCRIPTION
     The getopts(1) command supersedes getopt.  For more information, see the
     NOTES below.

     getopt is used to break up options in command lines for easy parsing by
     shell procedures and to check for legal options.  It recognizes
     supplementary code set characters in the argument given to optstring
     according to the locale specified in the LC_CTYPE environment variable
     [see LANG on environ(5)].

     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 -- is used to delimit the end of the options.  If it is used
     explicitly, getopt recognizes it; otherwise, getopt generates it; in
     either case, getopt places it at the end of the options.  The positional
     parameters ($1 $2 ...) of the shell 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 accepts 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


FILES
     /usr/lib/locale/locale/LC_MESSAGES/uxcore
          language-specific message file [See LANG on environ(5).]

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

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

NOTES
     getopt may not be supported in a future release.  For this release a
     conversion tool has been provided, getoptcvt.  For more information about
     getopts and getoptcvt, see getopts(1).

     Reset OPTIND to 1 when rescanning the options.

     getopt does not support the part of Rule 8 of the command syntax standard
     [see intro(1)] that permits groups of option-arguments following an
     option to be separated by white space and quoted.  For example,

          cmd -a -b -o "xxx z yy" file

     is not handled correctly.  To correct this deficiency, use the getopts
     command in place of getopt.

     If an option that takes an option-argument is followed by a value that is
     the same as one of the options listed in optstring (referring to the
     earlier EXAMPLE section, but using the following command line:  cmd -o -a
     file), getopt always treats -a as an option-argument to -o; it never
     recognizes -a as an option.  For this case, the for loop in the example
     shifts past the file argument.


                                                                        Page 2