Using getopts in bash shell script to get long and

Question

I wish to have long and short forms of command line options invoked using my shell script.

I know that getopts can be used, but like in Perl, I have not been able to do the same with shell.

Any ideas on how this can be done, so that I can use options like:

./shell.sh --copyfile abc.pl /tmp/
./shell.sh -c abc.pl /tmp/

In the above, both the commands mean the same thing to my shell, but using getopts, I have not been able to implement these?

Answer 1

Builtin getopts only parse short options (except in ksh93), but you can still add few lines of scripting to make getopts handles long options.

Here is a part of code found in http://www.uxora.com/unix/shell-script/22-handle-long-options-with-getopts

  #== set short options ==#
SCRIPT_OPTS=':fbF:B:-:h'
  #== set long options associated with short one ==#
typeset -A ARRAY_OPTS
ARRAY_OPTS=(
    [foo]=f
    [bar]=b
    [foobar]=F
    [barfoo]=B
    [help]=h
    [man]=h
)

  #== parse options ==#
while getopts ${SCRIPT_OPTS} OPTION ; do
    #== translate long options to short ==#
    if [[ "x$OPTION" == "x-" ]]; then
        LONG_OPTION=$OPTARG
        LONG_OPTARG=$(echo $LONG_OPTION | grep "=" | cut -d'=' -f2)
        LONG_OPTIND=-1
        [[ "x$LONG_OPTARG" = "x" ]] && LONG_OPTIND=$OPTIND || LONG_OPTION=$(echo $OPTARG | cut -d'=' -f1)
        [[ $LONG_OPTIND -ne -1 ]] && eval LONG_OPTARG="\$$LONG_OPTIND"
        OPTION=${ARRAY_OPTS[$LONG_OPTION]}
        [[ "x$OPTION" = "x" ]] &&  OPTION="?" OPTARG="-$LONG_OPTION"

        if [[ $( echo "${SCRIPT_OPTS}" | grep -c "${OPTION}:" ) -eq 1 ]]; then
            if [[ "x${LONG_OPTARG}" = "x" ]] || [[ "${LONG_OPTARG}" = -* ]]; then 
                OPTION=":" OPTARG="-$LONG_OPTION"
            else
                OPTARG="$LONG_OPTARG";
                if [[ $LONG_OPTIND -ne -1 ]]; then
                    [[ $OPTIND -le $Optnum ]] && OPTIND=$(( $OPTIND+1 ))
                    shift $OPTIND
                    OPTIND=1
                fi
            fi
        fi
    fi

    #== options follow by another option instead of argument ==#
    if [[ "x${OPTION}" != "x:" ]] && [[ "x${OPTION}" != "x?" ]] && [[ "${OPTARG}" = -* ]]; then 
        OPTARG="$OPTION" OPTION=":"
    fi

    #== manage options ==#
    case "$OPTION" in
        f  ) foo=1 bar=0                    ;;
        b  ) foo=0 bar=1                    ;;
        B  ) barfoo=${OPTARG}               ;;
        F  ) foobar=1 && foobar_name=${OPTARG} ;;
        h ) usagefull && exit 0 ;;
        : ) echo "${SCRIPT_NAME}: -$OPTARG: option requires an argument" >&2 && usage >&2 && exit 99 ;;
        ? ) echo "${SCRIPT_NAME}: -$OPTARG: unknown option" >&2 && usage >&2 && exit 99 ;;
    esac
done
shift $((${OPTIND} - 1))

Here is a test:

# Short options test
$ ./foobar_any_getopts.sh -bF "Hello world" -B 6 file1 file2
foo=0 bar=1
barfoo=6
foobar=1 foobar_name=Hello world
files=file1 file2

# Long and short options test
$ ./foobar_any_getopts.sh --bar -F Hello --barfoo 6 file1 file2
foo=0 bar=1
barfoo=6
foobar=1 foobar_name=Hello
files=file1 file2

Otherwise in recent Korn Shell ksh93, getopts can naturally parse long options and even display a man page alike. (See http://www.uxora.com/unix/shell-script/20-getopts-with-man-page-and-long-options)

Answer 2

The Bash builtin getopts function can be used to parse long options by putting a dash character followed by a colon into the optspec:

#!/usr/bin/env bash 
optspec=":hv-:"
while getopts "$optspec" optchar; do
    case "${optchar}" in
        -)
            case "${OPTARG}" in
                loglevel)
                    val="${!OPTIND}"; OPTIND=$(( $OPTIND + 1 ))
                    echo "Parsing option: '--${OPTARG}', value: '${val}'" >&2;
                    ;;
                loglevel=*)
                    val=${OPTARG#*=}
                    opt=${OPTARG%=$val}
                    echo "Parsing option: '--${opt}', value: '${val}'" >&2
                    ;;
                *)
                    if [ "$OPTERR" = 1 ] && [ "${optspec:0:1}" != ":" ]; then
                        echo "Unknown option --${OPTARG}" >&2
                    fi
                    ;;
            esac;;
        h)
            echo "usage: $0 [-v] [--loglevel[=]<value>]" >&2
            exit 2
            ;;
        v)
            echo "Parsing option: '-${optchar}'" >&2
            ;;
        *)
            if [ "$OPTERR" != 1 ] || [ "${optspec:0:1}" = ":" ]; then
                echo "Non-option argument: '-${OPTARG}'" >&2
            fi
            ;;
    esac
done

After copying to executable file name=getopts_test.sh in the current working directory, one can produce output like

$ ./getopts_test.sh
$ ./getopts_test.sh -f
Non-option argument: '-f'
$ ./getopts_test.sh -h
usage: code/getopts_test.sh [-v] [--loglevel[=]<value>]
$ ./getopts_test.sh --help
$ ./getopts_test.sh -v
Parsing option: '-v'
$ ./getopts_test.sh --very-bad
$ ./getopts_test.sh --loglevel
Parsing option: '--loglevel', value: ''
$ ./getopts_test.sh --loglevel 11
Parsing option: '--loglevel', value: '11'
$ ./getopts_test.sh --loglevel=11
Parsing option: '--loglevel', value: '11'

Obviously getopts neither performs OPTERR checking nor option-argument parsing for the long options. The script fragment above shows how this may be done manually. The basic principle also works in the Debian Almquist shell ("dash"). Note the special case:

getopts -- "-:"  ## without the option terminator "-- " bash complains about "-:"
getopts "-:"     ## this works in the Debian Almquist shell ("dash")

Note that, as GreyCat from over at http://mywiki.wooledge.org/BashFAQ points out, this trick exploits a non-standard behaviour of the shell which permits the option-argument (i.e. the filename in "-f filename") to be concatenated to the option (as in "-ffilename"). The POSIX standard says there must be a space between them, which in the case of "-- longoption" would terminate the option-parsing and turn all longoptions into non-option arguments.

Answer 3

#!/bin/bash
while getopts "abc:d:" flag
do
  case $flag in
    a) echo "[getopts:$OPTIND]==> -$flag";;
    b) echo "[getopts:$OPTIND]==> -$flag";;
    c) echo "[getopts:$OPTIND]==> -$flag $OPTARG";;
    d) echo "[getopts:$OPTIND]==> -$flag $OPTARG";;
  esac
done

shift $((OPTIND-1))
echo "[otheropts]==> $@"

exit

.

#!/bin/bash
until [ -z "$1" ]; do
  case $1 in
    "--dlong")
      shift
      if [ "${1:1:0}" != "-" ]
      then
        echo "==> dlong $1"
        shift
      fi;;
    *) echo "==> other $1"; shift;;
  esac
done
exit

Answer 4

Here's an example that actually uses getopt with long options:

aflag=no
bflag=no
cargument=none

# options may be followed by one colon to indicate they have a required argument
if ! options=$(getopt -o abc: -l along,blong,clong: -- "$@")
then
    # something went wrong, getopt will put out an error message for us
    exit 1
fi

set -- $options

while [ $# -gt 0 ]
do
    case $1 in
    -a|--along) aflag="yes" ;;
    -b|--blong) bflag="yes" ;;
    # for options with required arguments, an additional shift is required
    -c|--clong) cargument="$2" ; shift;;
    (--) shift; break;;
    (-*) echo "$0: error - unrecognized option $1" 1>&2; exit 1;;
    (*) break;;
    esac
    shift
done

Answer 5

getopts "could be used" for parsing long options as long as you don't expect them to have arguments...

Here's how to:

$ cat > longopt
while getopts 'e:-:' OPT; do
  case $OPT in
    e) echo echo: $OPTARG;;
    -) #long option
       case $OPTARG in
         long-option) echo long option;;
         *) echo long option: $OPTARG;;
       esac;;
  esac
done

$ bash longopt -e asd --long-option --long1 --long2 -e test
echo: asd
long option
long option: long1
long option: long2
echo: test

If you try to use OPTIND for getting a parameter for the long option, getopts will treat it as the first no optional positional parameter and will stop parsing any other parameters. In such a case you'll be better off handling it manually with a simple case statement.

This will "always" work:

$ cat >longopt2
while (($#)); do
    OPT=$1
    shift
    case $OPT in
        --*) case ${OPT:2} in
            long1) echo long1 option;;
            complex) echo comples with argument $1; shift;;
        esac;;

        -*) case ${OPT:1} in
            a) echo short option a;;
            b) echo short option b with parameter $1; shift;;
        esac;;
    esac
done


$ bash longopt2 --complex abc -a --long -b test
comples with argument abc
short option a
short option b with parameter test

Albeit is not as flexible as getopts and you have to do much of the error checking code yourself within the case instances...

But it is an option.

Answer 6

Long options can be parsed by the standard getopts builtin as “arguments” to the - “option”

This is portable and native POSIX shell – no external programs or bashisms are needed.

This guide implements long options as arguments to the - option, so --alpha is seen by getopts as - with argument alpha and --bravo=foo is seen as - with argument bravo=foo. The true argument can be harvested with a simple replacement: ${OPTARG#*=}.

In this example, -b (and its long form, --bravo) has a mandatory option (note the manual reconstruction of enforcing that for the long form). Non-boolean options to long arguments come after equals signs, e.g. --bravo=foo (space delimiters for long options would be hard to implement).

Because this uses getopts, this solution supports usage like cmd -ac --bravo=foo -d FILE (which has combined options -a and -c and interleaves long options with standard options) while most other answers here either struggle or fail to do that.

while getopts ab:c-: arg; do
  case $arg in
    a )  ARG_A=true ;;
    b )  ARG_B="$OPTARG" ;;
    c )  ARG_C=true ;;
    - )  LONG_OPTARG="${OPTARG#*=}"
         case $OPTARG in
           alpha    )  ARG_A=true ;;
           bravo=?* )  ARG_B="$LONG_OPTARG" ;;
           bravo*   )  echo "No arg for --$OPTARG option" >&2; exit 2 ;;
           charlie  )  ARG_C=true ;;
           alpha* | charlie* )
                       echo "No arg allowed for --$OPTARG option" >&2; exit 2 ;;
           '' )        break ;; # "--" terminates argument processing
           * )         echo "Illegal option --$OPTARG" >&2; exit 2 ;;
         esac ;;
    \? ) exit 2 ;;  # getopts already reported the illegal option
  esac
done
shift $((OPTIND-1)) # remove parsed options and args from $@ list

When the argument is a dash (-), it has two more components: the flag name and (optionally) its argument. I delimit these the standard way any command would, with the first equals sign (=). $LONG_OPTARG is therefore merely the content of $OPTARG without the flag name or equals sign.

The inner case implements long options manually, so it needs some housekeeping:

• bravo=? matches --bravo=foo but not --bravo= (note: case stops after the first match)
• bravo* follows, noting the missing required argument in --bravo and --bravo=
• alpha* | charlie* catches arguments given to the options that don't support them
• '' is present to support non-options that happen to start with dashes
• * catches all other long options and recreates the error thrown by getopts for an invalid option

You don't necessarily need all of those housekeeping items. For example, perhaps you want --bravo to have an optional argument (which -b can't support due to a limitation in getopts). Merely remove the =? and the related failure case and then call ${ARG_B:=$DEFAULT_ARG_B} the first time you use $ARG_B.