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

Take a look at shFlags which is a portable shell library (meaning: sh, bash, dash, ksh, zsh on Linux, Solaris, etc.).

It makes adding new flags as simple as adding one line to your script, and it provides an auto generated usage function.

Here is a simple Hello, world! using shFlag:

#!/bin/sh

# source shflags from current directory
. ./shflags

# define a 'name' command-line string flag
DEFINE_string 'name' 'world' 'name to say hello to' 'n'

# parse the command-line
FLAGS "$@" || exit 1
eval set -- "${FLAGS_ARGV}"

# say hello
echo "Hello, ${FLAGS_name}!"

For OSes that have the enhanced getopt that supports long options (e.g. Linux), you can do:

$ ./hello_world.sh --name Kate
Hello, Kate!

For the rest, you must use the short option:

$ ./hello_world.sh -n Kate
Hello, Kate!

Adding a new flag is as simple as adding a new DEFINE_ call.

Answer 2

In order to stay cross-platform compatible, and avoid the reliance on external executables, I ported some code from another language.

I find it very easy to use, here is an example:

ArgParser::addArg "[h]elp"    false    "This list"
ArgParser::addArg "[q]uiet"   false    "Supress output"
ArgParser::addArg "[s]leep"   1        "Seconds to sleep"
ArgParser::addArg "v"         1        "Verbose mode"

ArgParser::parse "$@"

ArgParser::isset help && ArgParser::showArgs

ArgParser::isset "quiet" \
   && echo "Quiet!" \
   || echo "Noisy!"

local __sleep
ArgParser::tryAndGetArg sleep into __sleep \
   && echo "Sleep for $__sleep seconds" \
   || echo "No value passed for sleep"

# This way is often more convienient, but is a little slower
echo "Sleep set to: $( ArgParser::getArg sleep )"

The required BASH is a little longer than it could be, but I wanted to avoid reliance on BASH 4's associative arrays. You can also download this directly from http://nt4.com/bash/argparser.inc.sh

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# Updates to this script may be found at
# http://nt4.com/bash/argparser.inc.sh

# Example of runtime usage:
# mnc.sh --nc -q Caprica.S0*mkv *.avi *.mp3 --more-options here --host centos8.host.com

# Example of use in script (see bottom)
# Just include this file in yours, or use
# source argparser.inc.sh

unset EXPLODED
declare -a EXPLODED
function explode 
{
    local c=$# 
    (( c < 2 )) && 
    {
        echo function "$0" is missing parameters 
        return 1
    }

    local delimiter="$1"
    local string="$2"
    local limit=${3-99}

    local tmp_delim=$'\x07'
    local delin=${string//$delimiter/$tmp_delim}
    local oldifs="$IFS"

    IFS="$tmp_delim"
    EXPLODED=($delin)
    IFS="$oldifs"
}


# See: http://fvue.nl/wiki/Bash:_Passing_variables_by_reference
# Usage: local "$1" && upvar $1 "value(s)"
upvar() {
    if unset -v "$1"; then           # Unset & validate varname
        if (( $# == 2 )); then
            eval $1=\"\$2\"          # Return single value
        else
            eval $1=\(\"\${@:2}\"\)  # Return array
        fi
    fi
}

function decho
{
    :
}

function ArgParser::check
{
    __args=${#__argparser__arglist[@]}
    for (( i=0; i<__args; i++ ))
    do
        matched=0
        explode "|" "${__argparser__arglist[$i]}"
        if [ "${#1}" -eq 1 ]
        then
            if [ "${1}" == "${EXPLODED[0]}" ]
            then
                decho "Matched $1 with ${EXPLODED[0]}"
                matched=1

                break
            fi
        else
            if [ "${1}" == "${EXPLODED[1]}" ]
            then
                decho "Matched $1 with ${EXPLODED[1]}"
                matched=1

                break
            fi
        fi
    done
    (( matched == 0 )) && return 2
    # decho "Key $key has default argument of ${EXPLODED[3]}"
    if [ "${EXPLODED[3]}" == "false" ]
    then
        return 0
    else
        return 1
    fi
}

function ArgParser::set
{
    key=$3
    value="${1:-true}"
    declare -g __argpassed__$key="$value"
}

function ArgParser::parse
{

    unset __argparser__argv
    __argparser__argv=()
    # echo parsing: "$@"

    while [ -n "$1" ]
    do
        # echo "Processing $1"
        if [ "${1:0:2}" == '--' ]
        then
            key=${1:2}
            value=$2
        elif [ "${1:0:1}" == '-' ]
        then
            key=${1:1}               # Strip off leading -
            value=$2
        else
            decho "Not argument or option: '$1'" >& 2
            __argparser__argv+=( "$1" )
            shift
            continue
        fi
        # parameter=${tmp%%=*}     # Extract name.
        # value=${tmp##*=}         # Extract value.
        decho "Key: '$key', value: '$value'"
        # eval $parameter=$value
        ArgParser::check $key
        el=$?
        # echo "Check returned $el for $key"
        [ $el -eq  2 ] && decho "No match for option '$1'" >&2 # && __argparser__argv+=( "$1" )
        [ $el -eq  0 ] && decho "Matched option '${EXPLODED[2]}' with no arguments"        >&2 && ArgParser::set true "${EXPLODED[@]}"
        [ $el -eq  1 ] && decho "Matched option '${EXPLODED[2]}' with an argument of '$2'"   >&2 && ArgParser::set "$2" "${EXPLODED[@]}" && shift
        shift
    done
}

function ArgParser::isset
{
    declare -p "__argpassed__$1" > /dev/null 2>&1 && return 0
    return 1
}

function ArgParser::getArg
{
    # This one would be a bit silly, since we can only return non-integer arguments ineffeciently
    varname="__argpassed__$1"
    echo "${!varname}"
}

##
# usage: tryAndGetArg <argname> into <varname>
# returns: 0 on success, 1 on failure
function ArgParser::tryAndGetArg
{
    local __varname="__argpassed__$1"
    local __value="${!__varname}"
    test -z "$__value" && return 1
    local "$3" && upvar $3 "$__value"
    return 0
}

function ArgParser::__construct
{
    unset __argparser__arglist
    # declare -a __argparser__arglist
}

##
# @brief add command line argument
# @param 1 short and/or long, eg: [s]hort
# @param 2 default value
# @param 3 description
##
function ArgParser::addArg
{
    # check for short arg within long arg
    if [[ "$1" =~ \[(.)\] ]]
    then
        short=${BASH_REMATCH[1]}
        long=${1/\[$short\]/$short}
    else
        long=$1
    fi
    if [ "${#long}" -eq 1 ]
    then
        short=$long
        long=''
    fi
    decho short: "$short"
    decho long: "$long"
    __argparser__arglist+=("$short|$long|$1|$2|$3")
}

## 
# @brief show available command line arguments
##
function ArgParser::showArgs
{
    # declare -p | grep argparser
    printf "Usage: %s [OPTION...]\n\n" "$( basename "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" )"
    printf "Defaults for the options are specified in brackets.\n\n";

    __args=${#__argparser__arglist[@]}
    for (( i=0; i<__args; i++ ))
    do
        local shortname=
        local fullname=
        local default=
        local description=
        local comma=

        explode "|" "${__argparser__arglist[$i]}"

        shortname="${EXPLODED[0]:+-${EXPLODED[0]}}" # String Substitution Guide: 
        fullname="${EXPLODED[1]:+--${EXPLODED[1]}}" # http://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/parameter-substitution.html
        test -n "$shortname" \
            && test -n "$fullname" \
            && comma=","

        default="${EXPLODED[3]}"
        case $default in
            false )
                default=
                ;;
            "" )
                default=
                ;;
            * )
                default="[$default]"
        esac

        description="${EXPLODED[4]}"

        printf "  %2s%1s %-19s %s %s\n" "$shortname" "$comma" "$fullname" "$description" "$default"
    done
}

function ArgParser::test
{
    # Arguments with a default of 'false' do not take paramaters (note: default
    # values are not applied in this release)

    ArgParser::addArg "[h]elp"      false       "This list"
    ArgParser::addArg "[q]uiet" false       "Supress output"
    ArgParser::addArg "[s]leep" 1           "Seconds to sleep"
    ArgParser::addArg "v"           1           "Verbose mode"

    ArgParser::parse "$@"

    ArgParser::isset help && ArgParser::showArgs

    ArgParser::isset "quiet" \
        && echo "Quiet!" \
        || echo "Noisy!"

    local __sleep
    ArgParser::tryAndGetArg sleep into __sleep \
        && echo "Sleep for $__sleep seconds" \
        || echo "No value passed for sleep"

    # This way is often more convienient, but is a little slower
    echo "Sleep set to: $( ArgParser::getArg sleep )"

    echo "Remaining command line: ${__argparser__argv[@]}"

}

if [ "$( basename "$0" )" == "argparser.inc.sh" ]
then
    ArgParser::test "$@"
fi

Answer 3

Th built-in OS X (BSD) getopt does not support long options, but the GNU version does: brew install gnu-getopt. Then, something similar to: cp /usr/local/Cellar/gnu-getopt/1.1.6/bin/getopt /usr/local/bin/gnu-getopt.

Answer 4

hm.

not really satisfied with the pure bash options. why not use perl to get what you want. Directly parse the $* array, and auto-name your options.

simple helper script:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use Getopt::Long;

my $optstring = shift;

my @opts = split(m#,#, $optstring);

my %opt;
GetOptions(\%opt, @opts);

print "set -- " . join(' ', map("'$_'", @ARGV)) . ";";
my $xx;

my $key;
foreach $key (keys(%opt))
{
    print "export $key='$opt{$key}'; ";
}

then you can use in your script as a one liner, for example:

#!/bin/bash

eval `getopts.pl reuse:s,long_opt:s,hello $*`;

echo "HELLO: $hello"
echo "LONG_OPT: $long_opt"
echo "REUSE: $reuse"

echo $*

/tmp/script.sh hello --reuse me --long_opt whatever_you_want_except_spaces --hello 1 2 3

HELLO: 1 LONG_OPT: whatever_you_want_except spaces REUSE: me

1 2 3

Only caveat here is spaces don't work. But it avoids bash's rather complicated looping syntax, works with long args, auto-names them as variables and automatically resizes $*, so will work 99% of the time.

Answer 5

The built-in getopts can't do this. There is an external getopt(1) program that can do this, but you only get it on Linux from the util-linux package. It comes with an example script getopt-parse.bash.

There is also a getopts_long written as a shell function.

Answer 6

If all your long options have unique, and matching, first characters as the short options, so for example

./slamm --chaos 23 --plenty test -quiet

Is the same as

./slamm -c 23 -p test -q

You can use this before getopts to rewrite $args:

# change long options to short options

for arg; do 
    [[ "${arg:0:1}" == "-" ]] && delim="" || delim="\""
    if [ "${arg:0:2}" == "--" ]; 
       then args="${args} -${arg:2:1}" 
       else args="${args} ${delim}${arg}${delim}"
    fi
done

# reset the incoming args
eval set -- $args

# proceed as usual
while getopts ":b:la:h" OPTION; do
    .....

Thanks for mtvee for the inspiration ;-)