GETOPT_LONG(3)

NAME
getopt_long - get long options from command line argument list

LIBRARY
libc

SYNOPSIS
#include <getopt.h>
int
getopt_long(int argc, char * const *argv, const char *optstring, struct option *long options, int *index);

DESCRIPTION
The getopt_long() function is similar to getopt(3) but it accepts options in two forms: words and characters. The getopt_long() function provides a superset of the functionality of getopt(3). The getopt_long() function can be used in two ways. In the first way, every long option understood by the program has a corresponding short option, and the option structure is only used to translate from long options to short options. When used in this fashion, getopt_long() behaves identically to getopt(3). This is a good way to add long option processing to an existing program with the minimum of rewriting.

In the second mechanism, a long option sets a flag in the option structure passed, or will store a pointer to the command line argument in the option structure passed to it for options that take arguments. Additionally, the long option's argument may be specified as a single argument with an equal sign, e.g.,

    myprogram --myoption=somevalue

When a long option is processed, the call to getopt_long() will return 0. For this reason, long option processing without shortcuts is not backwards compatible with getopt(3).

It is possible to combine these methods, providing for long options processing with short option equivalents for some options. Less frequently used options would be processed as long options only.

The getopt_long() call requires a structure to be initialized describing the long options. The structure is:

    struct option {
    	char *name;
    	int has_arg;
    	int *flag;
    	int val;
    };

The name field should contain the option name without the leading double dash.

The has_arg field should be one of:

no_argument
    no argument to the option is expect
required_argument
    an argument to the option is required
optional_argument
    an argument to the option may be presented.

If flag is not NULL, then the integer pointed to by it will be set to the value in the val field. If the flag field is NULL, then the val field will be returned. Setting flag to NULL and setting val to the corresponding short option will make this function act just like getopt(3).

EXAMPLES
    extern char *optarg;
    extern int optind;
    int bflag, ch, fd;
    int daggerset;
    /* options descriptor */
    static struct option longopts[] = {
    	{ "buffy",	no_argument,		0, 		'b' },
    	{ "floride",	required_argument,	0, 	       	'f' },
    	{ "daggerset",	no_argument,		daggerset,	1 },
    	{ 0, 		0,			0, 		0 }
    };
    bflag = 0;
    while ((ch = getopt_long(argc, argv, "bf:", longopts, NULL)) != -1)
    	switch(ch) {
    	case 'b':
    		bflag = 1;
    		break;
    	case 'f':
    		if ((fd = open(optarg, O_RDONLY, 0))  0) {
    			(void)fprintf(stderr,
    			    "myname: %s: %s\n", optarg, strerror(errno));
    			exit(1);
    		}
    		break;
    	case 0:
    		if(daggerset) {
    			fprintf(stderr,"Buffy will use her dagger to "
    				       "apply floride to dracula's teeth\n");
    		}
    		break;
    	case '?':
    	default:
    		usage();
    }
    argc -= optind;
    argv += optind;

IMPLEMENTATION DIFFERENCES
This section describes differences to the GNU implementation found in glibc-2.1.3:

•   Handling of ‘-’ as first char of option string in presence of environment variable POSIXLY_CORRECT:

    GNU ignores POSIXLY_CORRECT and returns non-options as arguments to option '\1'.

    NetBSD
        honors POSIXLY_CORRECT and stops at the first non-option.

•   Handling of ‘::’ in options string in presence of POSIXLY_CORRECT:

    Both
        GNU and NetBSD ignore POSIXLY_CORRECT here and take ‘::’ to mean the preceding option takes an optional argument.

•   Return value in case of missing argument if first character (after ‘+’ or ‘-’) in option string is not ‘’::

    GNU returns ‘’?

    NetBSD
        returns ‘’: (since NetBSD's getopt() does).

•   Handling of ‘--a’ in getopt:

    GNU parses this as option ‘-’, option ‘a’.

    NetBSD
        parses this as ‘--’, and returns -1 (ignoring the ‘a’). (Because the original getopt() does.)

•   Setting of optopt for long options with flag != NULL:

    GNU sets optopt to val.

    NetBSD
        sets optopt to 0 (since val would never be returned).

•   Handling of ‘-W’ with ‘W’; in option string in getopt() (not getopt_long()):

    GNU causes a segfault.

    NetBSD
        returns -1, with optind pointing past the argument of ‘-W’ (as if ‘-W arg’ were ‘--arg’, and thus ‘--’ had been found).

•   Setting of optarg for long options without an argument that are invoked via ‘-W’ ‘(W’; in option string):

    GNU sets optarg to the option name (the argument of ‘-W’).

    NetBSD
        sets optarg to NULL (the argument of the long option).

•   Handling of ‘-W’ with an argument that is not (a prefix to) a known long option ‘(W’; in option string):

    GNU returns ‘-W’ with optarg set to the unknown option.

    NetBSD
        treats this as an error (unknown option) and returns ‘’? with optopt set to 0 and optarg set to NULL (as GNU's man page documents).

•   The error messages are different.

•   NetBSD does not permute the argument vector at the same points in the calling sequence as GNU does. The aspects normally used by the caller (ordering after -1 is returned, value of optind relative to current positions) are the same, though. (We do fewer variable swaps.)

SEE ALSO
getopt(3)

HISTORY
The getopt_long() function first appeared in GNU libiberty. The first NetBSD implementation appeared in 1.5.

BUGS
The implementation can completely replace getopt(3), but right now we are using separate code.