Bash Shell Script - Check for a flag and grab its

Question

I am trying to make a shell script which is designed to be run like this:

script.sh -t application

Firstly, in my script I want to check to see if the script has been run with the -t flag. For example if it has been run without the flag like this I want it to error:

script.sh

Secondly, assuming there is a -t flag, I want to grab the value and store it in a variable that I can use in my script for example like this:

FLAG="application"

So far the only progress I've been able to make on any of this is that $@ grabs all the command line arguments but I don't know how this relates to flags, or if this is even possible.

Answer 1

Use $# to grab the number of arguments, if it is unequal to 2 there are not enough arguments provided:

if [ $# -ne 2 ]; then
   usage;
fi

Next, check if $1 equals -t, otherwise an unknown flag was used:

if [ "$1" != "-t" ]; then
  usage;
fi

Finally store $2 in FLAG:

FLAG=$2

Note: usage() is some function showing the syntax. For example:

function usage {
   cat << EOF
Usage: script.sh -t <application>

Performs some activity
EOF
   exit 1
}

Answer 2

Here is a generalized simple command argument interface you can paste to the top of all your scripts.

#!/bin/bash

declare -A flags
declare -A booleans
args=()

while [ "$1" ];
do
    arg=$1
    if [ "${1:0:1}" == "-" ]
    then
      shift
      rev=$(echo "$arg" | rev)
      if [ -z "$1" ] || [ "${1:0:1}" == "-" ] || [ "${rev:0:1}" == ":" ]
      then
        bool=$(echo ${arg:1} | sed s/://g)
        booleans[$bool]=true
        echo \"$bool\" is boolean
      else
        value=$1
        flags[${arg:1}]=$value
        shift
        echo \"$arg\" is flag with value \"$value\"
      fi
    else
      args+=("$arg")
      shift
      echo \"$arg\" is an arg
    fi
done


echo -e "\n"
echo booleans: ${booleans[@]}
echo flags: ${flags[@]}
echo args: ${args[@]}

echo -e "\nBoolean types:\n\tPrecedes Flag(pf): ${booleans[pf]}\n\tFinal Arg(f): ${booleans[f]}\n\tColon Terminated(Ct): ${booleans[Ct]}\n\tNot Mentioned(nm): ${boolean[nm]}"
echo -e "\nFlag: myFlag => ${flags["myFlag"]}"
echo -e "\nArgs: one: ${args[0]}, two: ${args[1]}, three: ${args[2]}"

By running the command:

bashScript.sh firstArg -pf -myFlag "my flag value" secondArg -Ct: thirdArg -f

The output will be this:

"firstArg" is an arg
"pf" is boolean
"-myFlag" is flag with value "my flag value"
"secondArg" is an arg
"Ct" is boolean
"thirdArg" is an arg
"f" is boolean


booleans: true true true
flags: my flag value
args: firstArg secondArg thirdArg

Boolean types:
    Precedes Flag(pf): true
    Final Arg(f): true
    Colon Terminated(Ct): true
    Not Mentioned(nm): 

Flag: myFlag => my flag value

Args: one => firstArg, two => secondArg, three => thirdArg

Basically, the arguments are divided up into flags booleans and generic arguments. By doing it this way a user can put the flags and booleans anywhere as long as he/she keeps the generic arguments (if there are any) in the specified order.

Allowing me and now you to never deal with bash arguemnt parsing again!

Answer 3

Try shFlags -- Advanced command-line flag library for Unix shell scripts.

http://code.google.com/p/shflags/

It is very good and very flexible.

FLAG TYPES: This is a list of the DEFINE_*'s that you can do. All flags take a name, default value, help-string, and optional 'short' name (one-letter name). Some flags have other arguments, which are described with the flag.

DEFINE_string: takes any input, and intreprets it as a string.

DEFINE_boolean: typically does not take any argument: say --myflag to set FLAGS_myflag to true, or --nomyflag to set FLAGS_myflag to false. Alternately, you can say --myflag=true or --myflag=t or --myflag=0 or --myflag=false or --myflag=f or --myflag=1 Passing an option has the same affect as passing the option once.

DEFINE_float: takes an input and intreprets it as a floating point number. As shell does not support floats per-se, the input is merely validated as being a valid floating point value.

DEFINE_integer: takes an input and intreprets it as an integer.

SPECIAL FLAGS: There are a few flags that have special meaning: --help (or -?) prints a list of all the flags in a human-readable fashion --flagfile=foo read flags from foo. (not implemented yet) -- as in getopt(), terminates flag-processing

EXAMPLE USAGE:

-- begin hello.sh --
 ! /bin/sh
. ./shflags
DEFINE_string name 'world' "somebody's name" n
FLAGS "$@" || exit $?
eval set -- "${FLAGS_ARGV}"
echo "Hello, ${FLAGS_name}."
-- end hello.sh --

$ ./hello.sh -n Kate
Hello, Kate.

Note: I took this text from shflags documentation

Answer 4

You should read this getopts tutorial.

Example with -a switch that requires an argument :

#!/bin/bash

while getopts ":a:" opt; do
  case $opt in
    a)
      echo "-a was triggered, Parameter: $OPTARG" >&2
      ;;
    \?)
      echo "Invalid option: -$OPTARG" >&2
      exit 1
      ;;
    :)
      echo "Option -$OPTARG requires an argument." >&2
      exit 1
      ;;
  esac
done

Like greybot said(getopt != getopts) :

The external command getopt(1) is never safe to use, unless you know it is GNU getopt, you call it in a GNU-specific way, and you ensure that GETOPT_COMPATIBLE is not in the environment. Use getopts (shell builtin) instead, or simply loop over the positional parameters.