Bash Space-Separated (e.g., --option argument)
cat >/tmp/demo-space-separated.sh <<'EOF'
#!/bin/bash
POSITIONAL=()
while [[ $# -gt 0 ]]; do
key="$1"
case $key in
-e|--extension)
EXTENSION="$2"
shift # past argument
shift # past value
;;
-s|--searchpath)
SEARCHPATH="$2"
shift # past argument
shift # past value
;;
-l|--lib)
LIBPATH="$2"
shift # past argument
shift # past value
;;
--default)
DEFAULT=YES
shift # past argument
;;
*) # unknown option
POSITIONAL+=("$1") # save it in an array for later
shift # past argument
;;
esac
done
set -- "${POSITIONAL[@]}" # restore positional parameters
echo "FILE EXTENSION = ${EXTENSION}"
echo "SEARCH PATH = ${SEARCHPATH}"
echo "LIBRARY PATH = ${LIBPATH}"
echo "DEFAULT = ${DEFAULT}"
echo "Number files in SEARCH PATH with EXTENSION:" $(ls -1 "${SEARCHPATH}"/*."${EXTENSION}" | wc -l)
if [[ -n $1 ]]; then
echo "Last line of file specified as non-opt/last argument:"
tail -1 "$1"
fi
EOF
chmod +x /tmp/demo-space-separated.sh
/tmp/demo-space-separated.sh -e conf -s /etc -l /usr/lib /etc/hosts
Output from copy-pasting the block above
FILE EXTENSION = conf
SEARCH PATH = /etc
LIBRARY PATH = /usr/lib
DEFAULT =
Number files in SEARCH PATH with EXTENSION: 14
Last line of file specified as non-opt/last argument:
#93.184.216.34 example.com
Usage
demo-space-separated.sh -e conf -s /etc -l /usr/lib /etc/hosts
Bash Equals-Separated (e.g., --option=argument)
cat >/tmp/demo-equals-separated.sh <<'EOF'
#!/bin/bash
for i in "$@"; do
case $i in
-e=*|--extension=*)
EXTENSION="${i#*=}"
shift # past argument=value
;;
-s=*|--searchpath=*)
SEARCHPATH="${i#*=}"
shift # past argument=value
;;
-l=*|--lib=*)
LIBPATH="${i#*=}"
shift # past argument=value
;;
--default)
DEFAULT=YES
shift # past argument with no value
;;
*)
# unknown option
;;
esac
done
echo "FILE EXTENSION = ${EXTENSION}"
echo "SEARCH PATH = ${SEARCHPATH}"
echo "LIBRARY PATH = ${LIBPATH}"
echo "DEFAULT = ${DEFAULT}"
echo "Number files in SEARCH PATH with EXTENSION:" $(ls -1 "${SEARCHPATH}"/*."${EXTENSION}" | wc -l)
if [[ -n $1 ]]; then
echo "Last line of file specified as non-opt/last argument:"
tail -1 $1
fi
EOF
chmod +x /tmp/demo-equals-separated.sh
/tmp/demo-equals-separated.sh -e=conf -s=/etc -l=/usr/lib /etc/hosts
Output from copy-pasting the block above
FILE EXTENSION = conf
SEARCH PATH = /etc
LIBRARY PATH = /usr/lib
DEFAULT =
Number files in SEARCH PATH with EXTENSION: 14
Last line of file specified as non-opt/last argument:
#93.184.216.34 example.com
Usage
demo-equals-separated.sh -e=conf -s=/etc -l=/usr/lib /etc/hosts
To better understand ${i#*=} search for "Substring Removal" in this guide. It is functionally equivalent to `sed 's/[^=]*=//' <<< "$i"` which calls a needless subprocess or `echo "$i" | sed 's/[^=]*=//'` which calls two needless subprocesses.
Using bash with getopt[s]
getopt(1) limitations (older, relatively-recent getopt versions):
- can't handle arguments that are empty strings
- can't handle arguments with embedded whitespace
More recent getopt versions don't have these limitations. For more information, see these docs.
POSIX getopts
Additionally, the POSIX shell and others offer getopts which doen't have these limitations. I've included a simplistic getopts example.
cat >/tmp/demo-getopts.sh <<'EOF'
#!/bin/sh
# A POSIX variable
OPTIND=1 # Reset in case getopts has been used previously in the shell.
# Initialize our own variables:
output_file=""
verbose=0
while getopts "h?vf:" opt; do
case "$opt" in
h|\?)
show_help
exit 0
;;
v) verbose=1
;;
f) output_file=$OPTARG
;;
esac
done
shift $((OPTIND-1))
[ "${1:-}" = "--" ] && shift
echo "verbose=$verbose, output_file='$output_file', Leftovers: $@"
EOF
chmod +x /tmp/demo-getopts.sh
/tmp/demo-getopts.sh -vf /etc/hosts foo bar
Output from copy-pasting the block above
verbose=1, output_file='/etc/hosts', Leftovers: foo bar
Usage
demo-getopts.sh -vf /etc/hosts foo bar
The advantages of getopts are:
- It's more portable, and will work in other shells like
dash.
- It can handle multiple single options like
-vf filename in the typical Unix way, automatically.
The disadvantage of getopts is that it can only handle short options (-h, not --help) without additional code.
There is a getopts tutorial which explains what all of the syntax and variables mean. In bash, there is also help getopts, which might be informative.
Check these out:
Or roll your own:
For instance, this is how you use commons-cli to parse 2 string arguments:
import org.apache.commons.cli.*;
public class Main {
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
Options options = new Options();
Option input = new Option("i", "input", true, "input file path");
input.setRequired(true);
options.addOption(input);
Option output = new Option("o", "output", true, "output file");
output.setRequired(true);
options.addOption(output);
CommandLineParser parser = new DefaultParser();
HelpFormatter formatter = new HelpFormatter();
CommandLine cmd = null;//not a good practice, it serves it purpose
try {
cmd = parser.parse(options, args);
} catch (ParseException e) {
System.out.println(e.getMessage());
formatter.printHelp("utility-name", options);
System.exit(1);
}
String inputFilePath = cmd.getOptionValue("input");
String outputFilePath = cmd.getOptionValue("output");
System.out.println(inputFilePath);
System.out.println(outputFilePath);
}
}
usage from command line:
$> java -jar target/my-utility.jar -i asd
Missing required option: o
usage: utility-name
-i,--input <arg> input file path
-o,--output <arg> output file
Best Answer
I don't think there is a way in Getopt::Long to do that, but it is easy enough to implement on your own (I am assuming there is a usage function that returns a string that tells the user how to call the program):