How do I parse command line arguments in Bash?

Asked 2023-09-20 20:29:09 View 685,859

Say, I have a script that gets called with this line:

./myscript -vfd ./foo/bar/someFile -o /fizz/someOtherFile

or this one:

./myscript -v -f -d -o /fizz/someOtherFile ./foo/bar/someFile 

What's the accepted way of parsing this such that in each case (or some combination of the two) $v, $f, and $d will all be set to true and $outFile will be equal to /fizz/someOtherFile?

  • For zsh-users there's a great builtin called zparseopts which can do: zparseopts -D -E -M -- d=debug -debug=d And have both -d and --debug in the $debug array echo $+debug[1] will return 0 or 1 if one of those are used. Ref: zsh.org/mla/users/2011/msg00350.html - anyone
  • Really good tutorial: linuxcommand.org/lc3_wss0120.php. I especially like the "Command Line Options" example. - anyone
  • I created a script which does it for you, it's called - github.com/unfor19/bargs - anyone
  • See also Giving a bash script the option to accepts flags, like a command? for an elaborate, ad hoc, long and short option parser. It does not attempt to handle option arguments attached to short options, nor long options with = separating option name from option value (in both cases, it simply assumes that the option value is in the next argument). It also doesn't handle short option clustering — the question didn't need it. - anyone
  • This great tutorial by Baeldung shows 4 ways to process command-line arguments in bash, including: 1) positional parameters $1, $2, etc., 2) flags with getopts and ${OPTARG}, 3) looping over all parameters ($@), and 4) looping over all parameters using $#, $1, and the shift operator. - anyone

Answers

Bash Space-Separated (e.g., --option argument)

cat >/tmp/demo-space-separated.sh <<'EOF'
#!/bin/bash

POSITIONAL_ARGS=()

while [[ $# -gt 0 ]]; do
  case $1 in
    -e|--extension)
      EXTENSION="$2"
      shift # past argument
      shift # past value
      ;;
    -s|--searchpath)
      SEARCHPATH="$2"
      shift # past argument
      shift # past value
      ;;
    --default)
      DEFAULT=YES
      shift # past argument
      ;;
    -*|--*)
      echo "Unknown option $1"
      exit 1
      ;;
    *)
      POSITIONAL_ARGS+=("$1") # save positional arg
      shift # past argument
      ;;
  esac
done

set -- "${POSITIONAL_ARGS[@]}" # restore positional parameters

echo "FILE EXTENSION  = ${EXTENSION}"
echo "SEARCH PATH     = ${SEARCHPATH}"
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 /etc/hosts
Output from copy-pasting the block above
FILE EXTENSION  = conf
SEARCH PATH     = /etc
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 /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
      ;;
    --default)
      DEFAULT=YES
      shift # past argument with no value
      ;;
    -*|--*)
      echo "Unknown option $i"
      exit 1
      ;;
    *)
      ;;
  esac
done

echo "FILE EXTENSION  = ${EXTENSION}"
echo "SEARCH PATH     = ${SEARCHPATH}"
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 /etc/hosts
Output from copy-pasting the block above
FILE EXTENSION  = conf
SEARCH PATH     = /etc
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 /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:

  1. It's more portable, and will work in other shells like dash.
  2. 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.

Answered   2023-09-20 20:29:09

  • Is this really true? According to Wikipedia there's a newer GNU enhanced version of getopt which includes all the functionality of getopts and then some. man getopt on Ubuntu 13.04 outputs getopt - parse command options (enhanced) as the name, so I presume this enhanced version is standard now. - anyone
  • That something is a certain way on your system is a very weak premise to base asumptions of "being standard" on. - anyone
  • @Livven, that getopt is not a GNU utility, it's part of util-linux. - anyone
  • If you use -gt 0, remove your shift after the esac, augment all the shift by 1 and add this case: *) break;; you can handle non optionnal arguments. Ex: pastebin.com/6DJ57HTc - anyone
  • The getopts "h?vf:" should be getopts "hvf:" without question mark. Arguments which are not recognized are stored as ? in $opt. Quote from man builtins: “The colon and question mark characters may not be used as option characters.” - anyone

No answer showcases enhanced getopt. And the top-voted answer is misleading: It either ignores -⁠vfd style short options (requested by the OP) or options after positional arguments (also requested by the OP); and it ignores parsing-errors. Instead:

  • Use enhanced getopt from util-linux or formerly GNU glibc.1
  • It works with getopt_long() the C function of GNU glibc.
  • no other solution on this page can do all this:
    • handles spaces, quoting characters and even binary in arguments2 (non-enhanced getopt can’t do this)
    • it can handle options at the end: script.sh -o outFile file1 file2 -v (getopts doesn’t do this)
    • allows =-style long options: script.sh --outfile=fileOut --infile fileIn (allowing both is lengthy if self parsing)
    • allows combined short options, e.g. -vfd (real work if self parsing)
    • allows touching option-arguments, e.g. -oOutfile or -vfdoOutfile
  • Is so old already3 that it comes preinstalled on any GNU system (i.e. Linux mostly); see footnote1
  • You can test for its existence with: getopt --test → return value 4.
  • Other getopt or shell-builtin getopts are of limited use.

The following calls

myscript -vfd ./foo/bar/someFile -o /fizz/someOtherFile
myscript -v -f -d -o/fizz/someOtherFile -- ./foo/bar/someFile
myscript --verbose --force --debug ./foo/bar/someFile -o/fizz/someOtherFile
myscript --output=/fizz/someOtherFile ./foo/bar/someFile -vfd
myscript ./foo/bar/someFile -df -v --output /fizz/someOtherFile

all return

verbose: y, force: y, debug: y, in: ./foo/bar/someFile, out: /fizz/someOtherFile

with the following myscript

#!/bin/bash
# More safety, by turning some bugs into errors.
# Without `errexit` you don’t need ! and can replace
# ${PIPESTATUS[0]} with a simple $?, but I prefer safety.
set -o errexit -o pipefail -o noclobber -o nounset

# -allow a command to fail with !’s side effect on errexit
# -use return value from ${PIPESTATUS[0]}, because ! hosed $?
! getopt --test > /dev/null 
if [[ ${PIPESTATUS[0]} -ne 4 ]]; then
    echo 'I’m sorry, `getopt --test` failed in this environment.'
    exit 1
fi

# option --output/-o requires 1 argument
LONGOPTS=debug,force,output:,verbose
OPTIONS=dfo:v

# -regarding ! and PIPESTATUS see above
# -temporarily store output to be able to check for errors
# -activate quoting/enhanced mode (e.g. by writing out “--options”)
# -pass arguments only via   -- "$@"   to separate them correctly
! PARSED=$(getopt --options=$OPTIONS --longoptions=$LONGOPTS --name "$0" -- "$@")
if [[ ${PIPESTATUS[0]} -ne 0 ]]; then
    # e.g. return value is 1
    #  then getopt has complained about wrong arguments to stdout
    exit 2
fi
# read getopt’s output this way to handle the quoting right:
eval set -- "$PARSED"

d=n f=n v=n outFile=-
# now enjoy the options in order and nicely split until we see --
while true; do
    case "$1" in
        -d|--debug)
            d=y
            shift
            ;;
        -f|--force)
            f=y
            shift
            ;;
        -v|--verbose)
            v=y
            shift
            ;;
        -o|--output)
            outFile="$2"
            shift 2
            ;;
        --)
            shift
            break
            ;;
        *)
            echo "Programming error"
            exit 3
            ;;
    esac
done

# handle non-option arguments
if [[ $# -ne 1 ]]; then
    echo "$0: A single input file is required."
    exit 4
fi

echo "verbose: $v, force: $f, debug: $d, in: $1, out: $outFile"

1 enhanced getopt is available on most “bash-systems”, including Cygwin; on OS X try brew install gnu-getopt, brew install util-linux or sudo port install getopt
2 the POSIX exec() conventions have no reliable way to pass binary NULL in command line arguments; those bytes prematurely end the argument
3 first version released in 1997 or before (I only tracked it back to 1997)

Answered   2023-09-20 20:29:09

  • Thanks for this. Just confirmed from the feature table at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getopts, if you need support for long options, and you're not on Solaris, getopt is the way to go. - anyone
  • I believe that the only caveat with getopt is that it cannot be used conveniently in wrapper scripts where one might have few options specific to the wrapper script, and then pass the non-wrapper-script options to the wrapped executable, intact. Let's say I have a grep wrapper called mygrep and I have an option --foo specific to mygrep, then I cannot do mygrep --foo -A 2, and have the -A 2 passed automatically to grep; I need to do mygrep --foo -- -A 2. Here is my implementation on top of your solution. - anyone
  • @bobpaul Your statement about util-linux is wrong and misleading as well: the package is marked “essential” on Ubuntu/Debian. As such, it is always installed. – Which distros are you talking about (where you say it needs to be installed on purpose)? - anyone
  • Note this doesn't work on Mac at least up to the current 10.14.3. The getopt that ships is BSD getopt from 1999... - anyone
  • @jjj footnote 1 covers OS X. – For OS X out-of-the-box solution check other questions and answers. Or to be honest: for real programming don’t use bash. ;-) - anyone

deploy.sh

#!/bin/bash

while [[ "$#" -gt 0 ]]; do
    case $1 in
        -t|--target) target="$2"; shift ;;
        -u|--uglify) uglify=1 ;;
        *) echo "Unknown parameter passed: $1"; exit 1 ;;
    esac
    shift
done

echo "Where to deploy: $target"
echo "Should uglify  : $uglify"

Usage:

./deploy.sh -t dev -u

# OR:

./deploy.sh --target dev --uglify

Answered   2023-09-20 20:29:09

  • This is what I am doing. Have to while [[ "$#" > 1 ]] if I want to support ending the line with a boolean flag ./script.sh --debug dev --uglify fast --verbose. Example: gist.github.com/hfossli/4368aa5a577742c3c9f9266ed214aa58 - anyone
  • Wow! Simple and clean! This is how I'm using this: gist.github.com/hfossli/4368aa5a577742c3c9f9266ed214aa58 - anyone
  • This is much nicer to paste into each script rather than dealing with source or having people wonder where your functionality actually starts. - anyone
  • Warning: this tolerates duplicated arguments, the latest argument prevails. e.g. ./script.sh -d dev -d prod would result in deploy == 'prod'. I used it anyway :P :) :+1: - anyone
  • Great answer, tnx! I shortened it a bit - while (( "$#" )); do instead of while [[ "$#" -gt 0 ]]; do - anyone

From digitalpeer.com with minor modifications:

Usage myscript.sh -p=my_prefix -s=dirname -l=libname

#!/bin/bash
for i in "$@"
do
case $i in
    -p=*|--prefix=*)
    PREFIX="${i#*=}"

    ;;
    -s=*|--searchpath=*)
    SEARCHPATH="${i#*=}"
    ;;
    -l=*|--lib=*)
    DIR="${i#*=}"
    ;;
    --default)
    DEFAULT=YES
    ;;
    *)
            # unknown option
    ;;
esac
done
echo PREFIX = ${PREFIX}
echo SEARCH PATH = ${SEARCHPATH}
echo DIRS = ${DIR}
echo DEFAULT = ${DEFAULT}

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.

Answered   2023-09-20 20:29:09

  • Neat! Though this won't work for space-separated arguments à la mount -t tempfs .... One can probably fix this via something like while [ $# -ge 1 ]; do param=$1; shift; case $param in; -p) prefix=$1; shift;; etc - anyone
  • This can’t handle -vfd style combined short options. - anyone
  • If you want to generically evaluate --option and -option without repeating OPTION=$i every time, use -*=*) as match pattern and eval ${i##*-}. - anyone
while [ "$#" -gt 0 ]; do
  case "$1" in
    -n) name="$2"; shift 2;;
    -p) pidfile="$2"; shift 2;;
    -l) logfile="$2"; shift 2;;

    --name=*) name="${1#*=}"; shift 1;;
    --pidfile=*) pidfile="${1#*=}"; shift 1;;
    --logfile=*) logfile="${1#*=}"; shift 1;;
    --name|--pidfile|--logfile) echo "$1 requires an argument" >&2; exit 1;;
    
    -*) echo "unknown option: $1" >&2; exit 1;;
    *) handle_argument "$1"; shift 1;;
  esac
done

This solution:

  • handles -n arg and --name=arg
  • allows arguments at the end
  • shows sane errors if anything is misspelled
  • compatible, doesn't use bashisms
  • readable, doesn't require maintaining state in a loop

Answered   2023-09-20 20:29:09

  • Sorry for the delay. In my script, the handle_argument function receives all the non-option arguments. You can replace that line with whatever you'd like, maybe *) die "unrecognized argument: $1" or collect the args into a variable *) args+="$1"; shift 1;;. - anyone
  • Amazing! I've tested a couple of answers, but this is the only one that worked for all cases, including many positional parameters (both before and after flags) - anyone
  • nice succinct code, but using -n and no other arg causes infinite loop due to error on shift 2, issuing shift twice instead of shift 2. Suggested the edit. - anyone

getopt()/getopts() is a good option. Copied from here:

The simple use of "getopt" is shown in this mini-script:

#!/bin/bash
echo "Before getopt"
for i
do
  echo $i
done
args=`getopt abc:d $*`
set -- $args
echo "After getopt"
for i
do
  echo "-->$i"
done

What we have said is that any of -a, -b, -c or -d will be allowed, but that -c is followed by an argument (the "c:" says that).

If we call this "g" and try it out:

bash-2.05a$ ./g -abc foo
Before getopt
-abc
foo
After getopt
-->-a
-->-b
-->-c
-->foo
-->--

We start with two arguments, and "getopt" breaks apart the options and puts each in its own argument. It also added "--".

Answered   2023-09-20 20:29:09

  • Using $* is broken usage of getopt. (It hoses arguments with spaces.) See my answer for proper usage. - anyone
  • Why would you want to make it more complicated? - anyone
  • @Matt J, the first part of the script (for i) would be able to handle arguments with spaces in them if you use "$i" instead of $i. The getopts does not seem to be able to handle arguments with spaces. What would be the advantage of using getopt over the for i loop? - anyone

I have found the matter to write portable parsing in scripts so frustrating that I have written Argbash - a FOSS code generator that can generate the arguments-parsing code for your script plus it has some nice features:

https://argbash.dev

Answered   2023-09-20 20:29:09

  • Thanks for writing argbash, I just used it and found it works well. I mostly went for argbash because it's a code generator supporting the older bash 3.x found on OS X 10.11 El Capitan. The only downside is that the code-generator approach means quite a lot of code in your main script, compared to calling a module. - anyone
  • You can actually use Argbash in a way that it produces tailor-made parsing library just for you that you can have included in your script or you can have it in a separate file and just source it. I have added an example to demonstrate that and I have made it more explicit in the documentation, too. - anyone
  • Good to know. That example is interesting but still not really clear - maybe you can change name of the generated script to 'parse_lib.sh' or similar and show where the main script calls it (like in the wrapping script section which is more complex use case). - anyone
  • The issues were addressed in recent version of argbash: Documentation has been improved, a quickstart argbash-init script has been introduced and you can even use argbash online at argbash.io/generate - anyone

I used the earlier answers as a starting point to tidy up my old adhoc param parsing. I then refactored out the following template code. It handles both long and short params, using = or space separated arguments, as well as multiple short params grouped together. Finally it re-inserts any non-param arguments back into the $1,$2.. variables.

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# NOTICE: Uncomment if your script depends on bashisms.
#if [ -z "$BASH_VERSION" ]; then bash $0 $@ ; exit $? ; fi

echo "Before"
for i ; do echo - $i ; done


# Code template for parsing command line parameters using only portable shell
# code, while handling both long and short params, handling '-f file' and
# '-f=file' style param data and also capturing non-parameters to be inserted
# back into the shell positional parameters.

while [ -n "$1" ]; do
        # Copy so we can modify it (can't modify $1)
        OPT="$1"
        # Detect argument termination
        if [ x"$OPT" = x"--" ]; then
                shift
                for OPT ; do
                        REMAINS="$REMAINS \"$OPT\""
                done
                break
        fi
        # Parse current opt
        while [ x"$OPT" != x"-" ] ; do
                case "$OPT" in
                        # Handle --flag=value opts like this
                        -c=* | --config=* )
                                CONFIGFILE="${OPT#*=}"
                                shift
                                ;;
                        # and --flag value opts like this
                        -c* | --config )
                                CONFIGFILE="$2"
                                shift
                                ;;
                        -f* | --force )
                                FORCE=true
                                ;;
                        -r* | --retry )
                                RETRY=true
                                ;;
                        # Anything unknown is recorded for later
                        * )
                                REMAINS="$REMAINS \"$OPT\""
                                break
                                ;;
                esac
                # Check for multiple short options
                # NOTICE: be sure to update this pattern to match valid options
                NEXTOPT="${OPT#-[cfr]}" # try removing single short opt
                if [ x"$OPT" != x"$NEXTOPT" ] ; then
                        OPT="-$NEXTOPT"  # multiple short opts, keep going
                else
                        break  # long form, exit inner loop
                fi
        done
        # Done with that param. move to next
        shift
done
# Set the non-parameters back into the positional parameters ($1 $2 ..)
eval set -- $REMAINS


echo -e "After: \n configfile='$CONFIGFILE' \n force='$FORCE' \n retry='$RETRY' \n remains='$REMAINS'"
for i ; do echo - $i ; done

Answered   2023-09-20 20:29:09

  • This code can’t handle options with arguments like this: -c1. And the use of = to separate short options from their arguments is unusual... - anyone
  • I ran into two problems with this useful chunk of code: 1) the "shift" in the case of "-c=foo" ends up eating the next parameter; and 2) 'c' should not be included in the "[cfr]" pattern for combinable short options. - anyone
# As long as there is at least one more argument, keep looping
while [[ $# -gt 0 ]]; do
    key="$1"
    case "$key" in
        # This is a flag type option. Will catch either -f or --foo
        -f|--foo)
        FOO=1
        ;;
        # Also a flag type option. Will catch either -b or --bar
        -b|--bar)
        BAR=1
        ;;
        # This is an arg value type option. Will catch -o value or --output-file value
        -o|--output-file)
        shift # past the key and to the value
        OUTPUTFILE="$1"
        ;;
        # This is an arg=value type option. Will catch -o=value or --output-file=value
        -o=*|--output-file=*)
        # No need to shift here since the value is part of the same string
        OUTPUTFILE="${key#*=}"
        ;;
        *)
        # Do whatever you want with extra options
        echo "Unknown option '$key'"
        ;;
    esac
    # Shift after checking all the cases to get the next option
    shift
done

This allows you to have both space separated options/values, as well as equal defined values.

So you could run your script using:

./myscript --foo -b -o /fizz/file.txt

as well as:

./myscript -f --bar -o=/fizz/file.txt

and both should have the same end result.

PROS:

  • Allows for both -arg=value and -arg value

  • Works with any arg name that you can use in bash

    • Meaning -a or -arg or --arg or -a-r-g or whatever
  • Pure bash. No need to learn/use getopt or getopts

CONS:

  • Can't combine args

    • Meaning no -abc. You must do -a -b -c

Answered   2023-09-20 20:29:09

  • I have a question here. Why did you use shift; OUTPUTFILE="$1" instead of OUTPUTFILE="$2"? Maybe it has an easy answer but I am a newbie in bash - anyone
  • I believe you could do either and it really just comes down to personal preference. In this case I just wanted to keep $1 as the "active" argument everywhere - anyone

This example shows how to use getopt and eval and HEREDOC and shift to handle short and long parameters with and without a required value that follows. Also the switch/case statement is concise and easy to follow.

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# usage function
function usage()
{
   cat << HEREDOC

   Usage: $progname [--num NUM] [--time TIME_STR] [--verbose] [--dry-run]

   optional arguments:
     -h, --help           show this help message and exit
     -n, --num NUM        pass in a number
     -t, --time TIME_STR  pass in a time string
     -v, --verbose        increase the verbosity of the bash script
     --dry-run            do a dry run, dont change any files

HEREDOC
}  

# initialize variables
progname=$(basename $0)
verbose=0
dryrun=0
num_str=
time_str=

# use getopt and store the output into $OPTS
# note the use of -o for the short options, --long for the long name options
# and a : for any option that takes a parameter
OPTS=$(getopt -o "hn:t:v" --long "help,num:,time:,verbose,dry-run" -n "$progname" -- "$@")
if [ $? != 0 ] ; then echo "Error in command line arguments." >&2 ; usage; exit 1 ; fi
eval set -- "$OPTS"

while true; do
  # uncomment the next line to see how shift is working
  # echo "\$1:\"$1\" \$2:\"$2\""
  case "$1" in
    -h | --help ) usage; exit; ;;
    -n | --num ) num_str="$2"; shift 2 ;;
    -t | --time ) time_str="$2"; shift 2 ;;
    --dry-run ) dryrun=1; shift ;;
    -v | --verbose ) verbose=$((verbose + 1)); shift ;;
    -- ) shift; break ;;
    * ) break ;;
  esac
done

if (( $verbose > 0 )); then

   # print out all the parameters we read in
   cat <<EOM
   num=$num_str
   time=$time_str
   verbose=$verbose
   dryrun=$dryrun
EOM
fi

# The rest of your script below

The most significant lines of the script above are these:

OPTS=$(getopt -o "hn:t:v" --long "help,num:,time:,verbose,dry-run" -n "$progname" -- "$@")
if [ $? != 0 ] ; then echo "Error in command line arguments." >&2 ; exit 1 ; fi
eval set -- "$OPTS"

while true; do
  case "$1" in
    -h | --help ) usage; exit; ;;
    -n | --num ) num_str="$2"; shift 2 ;;
    -t | --time ) time_str="$2"; shift 2 ;;
    --dry-run ) dryrun=1; shift ;;
    -v | --verbose ) verbose=$((verbose + 1)); shift ;;
    -- ) shift; break ;;
    * ) break ;;
  esac
done

Short, to the point, readable, and handles just about everything (IMHO).

Hope that helps someone.

Answered   2023-09-20 20:29:09

ASAP: Another Shell Argument Parser

Edit note: version 2.0, now with pure POSIX shell code and gluten free!

TL;DR

This parser uses only POSIX compliant shell code to process options in these formats: -o [ARG], -abo [ARG], --opt [ARG] or --opt=[ARG], where ARG is an optional argument. It can handle intermixed options and arguments, and also "--" to force any argument after it to be treated as positional.

Here is a minimal version that works as long as the command is correct, i.e. it doesn't perform almost any checks. You can paste it at the top of your script —it won't work as a function— and substitute your option definitions.

#!/bin/sh -e

USAGE="Usage:  ${CMD:=${0##*/}} [(-v|--verbose)] [--name=TEXT] [(-o|--output) FILE] [ARGS...]"

# helper functions
exit2 () { printf >&2 "%s:  %s: '%s'\n%s\n" "$CMD" "$1" "$2" "$USAGE"; exit 2; }
check () { { [ "$1" != "$EOL" ] && [ "$1" != '--' ]; } || exit2 "missing argument" "$2"; }  # avoid infinite loop

# parse command-line options
set -- "$@" "${EOL:=$(printf '\1\3\3\7')}"  # end-of-list marker
while [ "$1" != "$EOL" ]; do
  opt="$1"; shift
  case "$opt" in

    #EDIT HERE: defined options
         --name    ) check "$1" "$opt"; opt_name="$1"; shift;;
    -o | --output  ) check "$1" "$opt"; opt_output="$1"; shift;;
    -v | --verbose ) opt_verbose='true';;
    -h | --help    ) printf "%s\n" "$USAGE"; exit 0;;

    # process special cases
    --) while [ "$1" != "$EOL" ]; do set -- "$@" "$1"; shift; done;;   # parse remaining as positional
    --[!=]*=*) set -- "${opt%%=*}" "${opt#*=}" "$@";;                  # "--opt=arg"  ->  "--opt" "arg"
    -[A-Za-z0-9] | -*[!A-Za-z0-9]*) exit2 "invalid option" "$opt";;    # anything invalid like '-*'
    -?*) other="${opt#-?}"; set -- "${opt%$other}" "-${other}" "$@";;  # "-abc"  ->  "-a" "-bc"
    *) set -- "$@" "$opt";;                                            # positional, rotate to the end
  esac
done; shift

printf "name = '%s'\noutput = '%s'\nverbose = '%s'\n\$@ = (%s)\n" \
    "$opt_name" "$opt_output" "$opt_verbose" "$*"

Sample outputs

$ ./asap-example.sh -vo path/to/camelot 'spam?' --name=Arthur 'spam!' -- +42 -17
name = 'Arthur'
output = 'path/to/camelot'
verbose = 'true'
$@ = (spam? spam! +42 -17)
$ ./asap-example.sh -name Lancelot eggs bacon
asap-example.sh:  invalid option: '-n'
Usage:  asap-example.sh [(-v|--verbose)] [--name=TEXT] [(-o|--output) FILE] [ARG...]

Description

I was inspired by the relatively simple answer by @bronson and tempted to try to improve it (without adding too much complexity).

This parser implementation uses pattern matching, parameter expansion and the shell's own positional parameters as an output-restricted queue to loop over and process arguments. Here's the result:

  • Any of the -o [ARG], -abo [ARG], --long-option [ARG] and --long-option=[ARG] styles of options are accepted;
  • Arguments may occur in any order, only positional ones are left in $@ after the loop;
  • Use -- to force remaining arguments to be treated as positional;
  • Portable, compact, quite readable, with orthogonal features;
  • Doesn't depend on getopt(s) or external utilities;
  • Detects invalid options and missing arguments.

Portability

This code was tested and verified to work with a reasonably recent version of: bash, dash, mksh, ksh93, yash, zsh and BusyBox's ash (all called with their standard executable paths, not as /bin/sh).

If you find a bug or that it doesn't work with a particular POSIX compatible shell, please leave a comment.


PS: I know... An argument with the binary value of 0x01030307 could break the logic. However, if anyone is passing around binary arguments in a command-line, this issue should be their last concern.

Answered   2023-09-20 20:29:09

  • In POSIX sh, ^ in place of ! in glob bracket expressions is undefined.. - anyone
  • Thank you, @Liso! I need to update this answer. I've analyzed the regular expressions' decision tree and found some minor errors (nothing serious though). - anyone
  • @leogama your $EOL is not a binary sequence. It is just a printable string with length 12 (containing four backslashes). Did you mean to use printf instead of echo? I don't know if this impacts POSIX compliance though. - anyone
  • @PedroA Great! From GNU echo info page: "POSIX does not require support for any options, and says that the behavior of ‘echo’ is implementation-defined if any STRING contains a backslash or if the first argument is ‘-n’. Portable programs can use the ‘printf’ command if they need to omit trailing newlines or output control characters or backslashes." At least printf is in POSIX... - anyone
  • Running this using #!/bin/bash shebang resulting in infinite loop. - anyone

Expanding on @bruno-bronosky's answer, I added a "preprocessor" to handle some common formatting:

  • Expands --longopt=val into --longopt val
  • Expands -xyz into -x -y -z
  • Supports -- to indicate the end of flags
  • Shows an error for unexpected options
  • Compact and easy-to-read options switch
#!/bin/bash

# Report usage
usage() {
  echo "Usage:"
  echo "$(basename "$0") [options] [--] [file1, ...]"
}

invalid() {
  echo "ERROR: Unrecognized argument: $1" >&2
  usage
  exit 1
}

# Pre-process options to:
# - expand -xyz into -x -y -z
# - expand --longopt=arg into --longopt arg
ARGV=()
END_OF_OPT=
while [[ $# -gt 0 ]]; do
  arg="$1"; shift
  case "${END_OF_OPT}${arg}" in
    --) ARGV+=("$arg"); END_OF_OPT=1 ;;
    --*=*)ARGV+=("${arg%%=*}" "${arg#*=}") ;;
    --*) ARGV+=("$arg") ;;
    -*) for i in $(seq 2 ${#arg}); do ARGV+=("-${arg:i-1:1}"); done ;;
    *) ARGV+=("$arg") ;;
  esac
done

# Apply pre-processed options
set -- "${ARGV[@]}"

# Parse options
END_OF_OPT=
POSITIONAL=()
while [[ $# -gt 0 ]]; do
  case "${END_OF_OPT}${1}" in
    -h|--help)      usage; exit 0 ;;
    -p|--password)  shift; PASSWORD="$1" ;;
    -u|--username)  shift; USERNAME="$1" ;;
    -n|--name)      shift; names+=("$1") ;;
    -q|--quiet)     QUIET=1 ;;
    -C|--copy)      COPY=1 ;;
    -N|--notify)    NOTIFY=1 ;;
    --stdin)        READ_STDIN=1 ;;
    --)             END_OF_OPT=1 ;;
    -*)             invalid "$1" ;;
    *)              POSITIONAL+=("$1") ;;
  esac
  shift
done

# Restore positional parameters
set -- "${POSITIONAL[@]}"

Answered   2023-09-20 20:29:09

  • This looks great - but wondering if END_OF_OPT=1 is actually necessary on this line: --*) ARGV+=("$arg"); END_OF_OPT=1 ;;. If left in there, it fails to parse --username=fred if it's included after --quiet (or any other long-style boolean option). For example, script.sh --quiet --username=fred fails with Unrecognized argument: --username=fred (though script.sh --quiet --username fred works fine). I took out that END_OF_OPT=1 in my script and now it works, but not sure if maybe that breaks some other scenario I'm not aware of. - anyone

If you are making scripts that are interchangeable with other utilities, below flexibility may be useful.

Either:

command -x=myfilename.ext --another_switch 

Or:

command -x myfilename.ext --another_switch

Here is the code:

STD_IN=0

prefix=""
key=""
value=""
for keyValue in "$@"
do
  case "${prefix}${keyValue}" in
    -i=*|--input_filename=*)  key="-i";     value="${keyValue#*=}";; 
    -ss=*|--seek_from=*)      key="-ss";    value="${keyValue#*=}";;
    -t=*|--play_seconds=*)    key="-t";     value="${keyValue#*=}";;
    -|--stdin)                key="-";      value=1;;
    *)                                      value=$keyValue;;
  esac
  case $key in
    -i) MOVIE=$(resolveMovie "${value}");  prefix=""; key="";;
    -ss) SEEK_FROM="${value}";          prefix=""; key="";;
    -t)  PLAY_SECONDS="${value}";           prefix=""; key="";;
    -)   STD_IN=${value};                   prefix=""; key="";; 
    *)   prefix="${keyValue}=";;
  esac
done

Answered   2023-09-20 20:29:09

I think this one is simple enough to use:

#!/bin/bash
#

readopt='getopts $opts opt;rc=$?;[ "$rc$opt" = "0?" ]&&exit 1;[ $rc = 0 ]||{ shift $[OPTIND-1];false; }'

opts=vfdo:

# Enumerating options
while eval "$readopt"
do
    echo OPT:$opt ${OPTARG+OPTARG:$OPTARG}
done

# Enumerating arguments
for arg
do
    echo ARG:$arg
done

Invocation example:

./myscript -v -do /fizz/someOtherFile -f ./foo/bar/someFile
OPT:v 
OPT:d 
OPT:o OPTARG:/fizz/someOtherFile
OPT:f 
ARG:./foo/bar/someFile

Answered   2023-09-20 20:29:09

  • I read all and this one is my preferred one. I don't like to use -a=1 as argc style. I prefer to put first the main option -options and later the special ones with single spacing -o option. Im looking for the simplest-vs-better way to read argvs. - anyone
  • It's working really well but if you pass an argument to a non a: option all the following options would be taken as arguments. You can check this line ./myscript -v -d fail -o /fizz/someOtherFile -f ./foo/bar/someFile with your own script. -d option is not set as d: - anyone

I give you The Function parse_params that will parse params from the command line.

  1. It is a pure Bash solution, no additional utilities.
  2. Does not pollute global scope.
  3. Effortlessly returns you simple to use variables, that you could build further logic on.
  4. Amount of dashes before params does not matter (--all equals -all equals all=all)

The script below is a copy-paste working demonstration. See show_use function to understand how to use parse_params.

Limitations:

  1. Does not support space delimited params (-d 1)
  2. Param names will lose dashes so --any-param and -anyparam are equivalent
  3. eval $(parse_params "$@") must be used inside bash function (it will not work in the global scope)

#!/bin/bash

# Universal Bash parameter parsing
# Parse equal sign separated params into named local variables
# Standalone named parameter value will equal its param name (--force creates variable $force=="force")
# Parses multi-valued named params into an array (--path=path1 --path=path2 creates ${path[*]} array)
# Puts un-named params as-is into ${ARGV[*]} array
# Additionally puts all named params as-is into ${ARGN[*]} array
# Additionally puts all standalone "option" params as-is into ${ARGO[*]} array
# @author Oleksii Chekulaiev
# @version v1.4.1 (Jul-27-2018)
parse_params ()
{
    local existing_named
    local ARGV=() # un-named params
    local ARGN=() # named params
    local ARGO=() # options (--params)
    echo "local ARGV=(); local ARGN=(); local ARGO=();"
    while [[ "$1" != "" ]]; do
        # Escape asterisk to prevent bash asterisk expansion, and quotes to prevent string breakage
        _escaped=${1/\*/\'\"*\"\'}
        _escaped=${_escaped//\'/\\\'}
        _escaped=${_escaped//\"/\\\"}
        # If equals delimited named parameter
        nonspace="[^[:space:]]"
        if [[ "$1" =~ ^${nonspace}${nonspace}*=..* ]]; then
            # Add to named parameters array
            echo "ARGN+=('$_escaped');"
            # key is part before first =
            local _key=$(echo "$1" | cut -d = -f 1)
            # Just add as non-named when key is empty or contains space
            if [[ "$_key" == "" || "$_key" =~ " " ]]; then
                echo "ARGV+=('$_escaped');"
                shift
                continue
            fi
            # val is everything after key and = (protect from param==value error)
            local _val="${1/$_key=}"
            # remove dashes from key name
            _key=${_key//\-}
            # skip when key is empty
            # search for existing parameter name
            if (echo "$existing_named" | grep "\b$_key\b" >/dev/null); then
                # if name already exists then it's a multi-value named parameter
                # re-declare it as an array if needed
                if ! (declare -p _key 2> /dev/null | grep -q 'declare \-a'); then
                    echo "$_key=(\"\$$_key\");"
                fi
                # append new value
                echo "$_key+=('$_val');"
            else
                # single-value named parameter
                echo "local $_key='$_val';"
                existing_named=" $_key"
            fi
        # If standalone named parameter
        elif [[ "$1" =~ ^\-${nonspace}+ ]]; then
            # remove dashes
            local _key=${1//\-}
            # Just add as non-named when key is empty or contains space
            if [[ "$_key" == "" || "$_key" =~ " " ]]; then
                echo "ARGV+=('$_escaped');"
                shift
                continue
            fi
            # Add to options array
            echo "ARGO+=('$_escaped');"
            echo "local $_key=\"$_key\";"
        # non-named parameter
        else
            # Escape asterisk to prevent bash asterisk expansion
            _escaped=${1/\*/\'\"*\"\'}
            echo "ARGV+=('$_escaped');"
        fi
        shift
    done
}

#--------------------------- DEMO OF THE USAGE -------------------------------

show_use ()
{
    eval $(parse_params "$@")
    # --
    echo "${ARGV[0]}" # print first unnamed param
    echo "${ARGV[1]}" # print second unnamed param
    echo "${ARGN[0]}" # print first named param
    echo "${ARG0[0]}" # print first option param (--force)
    echo "$anyparam"  # print --anyparam value
    echo "$k"         # print k=5 value
    echo "${multivalue[0]}" # print first value of multi-value
    echo "${multivalue[1]}" # print second value of multi-value
    [[ "$force" == "force" ]] && echo "\$force is set so let the force be with you"
}

show_use "param 1" --anyparam="my value" param2 k=5 --force --multi-value=test1 --multi-value=test2

Answered   2023-09-20 20:29:09

Yet another option parser (generator)

An elegant option parser for shell scripts (full support for all POSIX shells) https://github.com/ko1nksm/getoptions (Update: v3.3.0 released on 2021-05-02)

getoptions is a new option parser (generator) written in POSIX-compliant shell script and released in august 2020. It is for those who want to support the POSIX / GNU style option syntax in your shell scripts.

The supported syntaxes are -a, +a, -abc, -vvv, -p VALUE, -pVALUE, --flag, --no-flag, --with-flag, --without-flag, --param VALUE, --param=VALUE, --option[=VALUE], --no-option --.

It supports subcommands, validation, abbreviated options, and automatic help generation. And works with all POSIX shells (dash 0.5.4+, bash 2.03+, ksh88+, mksh R28+, zsh 3.1.9+, yash 2.29+, busybox ash 1.1.3+, etc).

#!/bin/sh

VERSION="0.1"

parser_definition() {
  setup   REST help:usage -- "Usage: example.sh [options]... [arguments]..." ''
  msg -- 'Options:'
  flag    FLAG    -f --flag                 -- "takes no arguments"
  param   PARAM   -p --param                -- "takes one argument"
  option  OPTION  -o --option on:"default"  -- "takes one optional argument"
  disp    :usage  -h --help
  disp    VERSION    --version
}

eval "$(getoptions parser_definition) exit 1"

echo "FLAG: $FLAG, PARAM: $PARAM, OPTION: $OPTION"
printf '%s\n' "$@" # rest arguments

It's parses the following arguments:

example.sh -f --flag -p VALUE --param VALUE -o --option -oVALUE --option=VALUE 1 2 3

And automatic help generation.

$ example.sh --help

Usage: example.sh [options]... [arguments]...

Options:
  -f, --flag                  takes no arguments
  -p, --param PARAM           takes one argument
  -o, --option[=OPTION]       takes one optional argument
  -h, --help
      --version

It is also an option parser generator, generates the following simple option parsing code. If you use the generated code, you won't need getoptions. Achieve true portability and zero dependency.

FLAG=''
PARAM=''
OPTION=''
REST=''
getoptions_parse() {
  OPTIND=$(($#+1))
  while OPTARG= && [ $# -gt 0 ]; do
    case $1 in
      --?*=*) OPTARG=$1; shift
        eval 'set -- "${OPTARG%%\=*}" "${OPTARG#*\=}"' ${1+'"$@"'}
        ;;
      --no-*|--without-*) unset OPTARG ;;
      -[po]?*) OPTARG=$1; shift
        eval 'set -- "${OPTARG%"${OPTARG#??}"}" "${OPTARG#??}"' ${1+'"$@"'}
        ;;
      -[fh]?*) OPTARG=$1; shift
        eval 'set -- "${OPTARG%"${OPTARG#??}"}" -"${OPTARG#??}"' ${1+'"$@"'}
        OPTARG= ;;
    esac
    case $1 in
      '-f'|'--flag')
        [ "${OPTARG:-}" ] && OPTARG=${OPTARG#*\=} && set "noarg" "$1" && break
        eval '[ ${OPTARG+x} ] &&:' && OPTARG='1' || OPTARG=''
        FLAG="$OPTARG"
        ;;
      '-p'|'--param')
        [ $# -le 1 ] && set "required" "$1" && break
        OPTARG=$2
        PARAM="$OPTARG"
        shift ;;
      '-o'|'--option')
        set -- "$1" "$@"
        [ ${OPTARG+x} ] && {
          case $1 in --no-*|--without-*) set "noarg" "${1%%\=*}"; break; esac
          [ "${OPTARG:-}" ] && { shift; OPTARG=$2; } || OPTARG='default'
        } || OPTARG=''
        OPTION="$OPTARG"
        shift ;;
      '-h'|'--help')
        usage
        exit 0 ;;
      '--version')
        echo "${VERSION}"
        exit 0 ;;
      --)
        shift
        while [ $# -gt 0 ]; do
          REST="${REST} \"\${$(($OPTIND-$#))}\""
          shift
        done
        break ;;
      [-]?*) set "unknown" "$1"; break ;;
      *)
        REST="${REST} \"\${$(($OPTIND-$#))}\""
    esac
    shift
  done
  [ $# -eq 0 ] && { OPTIND=1; unset OPTARG; return 0; }
  case $1 in
    unknown) set "Unrecognized option: $2" "$@" ;;
    noarg) set "Does not allow an argument: $2" "$@" ;;
    required) set "Requires an argument: $2" "$@" ;;
    pattern:*) set "Does not match the pattern (${1#*:}): $2" "$@" ;;
    notcmd) set "Not a command: $2" "$@" ;;
    *) set "Validation error ($1): $2" "$@"
  esac
  echo "$1" >&2
  exit 1
}
usage() {
cat<<'GETOPTIONSHERE'
Usage: example.sh [options]... [arguments]...

Options:
  -f, --flag                  takes no arguments
  -p, --param PARAM           takes one argument
  -o, --option[=OPTION]       takes one optional argument
  -h, --help
      --version
GETOPTIONSHERE
}

Answered   2023-09-20 20:29:09

getopts works great if #1 you have it installed and #2 you intend to run it on the same platform. OSX and Linux (for example) behave differently in this respect.

Here is a (non getopts) solution that supports equals, non-equals, and boolean flags. For example you could run your script in this way:

./script --arg1=value1 --arg2 value2 --shouldClean

# parse the arguments.
COUNTER=0
ARGS=("$@")
while [ $COUNTER -lt $# ]
do
    arg=${ARGS[$COUNTER]}
    let COUNTER=COUNTER+1
    nextArg=${ARGS[$COUNTER]}

    if [[ $skipNext -eq 1 ]]; then
        echo "Skipping"
        skipNext=0
        continue
    fi

    argKey=""
    argVal=""
    if [[ "$arg" =~ ^\- ]]; then
        # if the format is: -key=value
        if [[ "$arg" =~ \= ]]; then
            argVal=$(echo "$arg" | cut -d'=' -f2)
            argKey=$(echo "$arg" | cut -d'=' -f1)
            skipNext=0

        # if the format is: -key value
        elif [[ ! "$nextArg" =~ ^\- ]]; then
            argKey="$arg"
            argVal="$nextArg"
            skipNext=1

        # if the format is: -key (a boolean flag)
        elif [[ "$nextArg" =~ ^\- ]] || [[ -z "$nextArg" ]]; then
            argKey="$arg"
            argVal=""
            skipNext=0
        fi
    # if the format has not flag, just a value.
    else
        argKey=""
        argVal="$arg"
        skipNext=0
    fi

    case "$argKey" in 
        --source-scmurl)
            SOURCE_URL="$argVal"
        ;;
        --dest-scmurl)
            DEST_URL="$argVal"
        ;;
        --version-num)
            VERSION_NUM="$argVal"
        ;;
        -c|--clean)
            CLEAN_BEFORE_START="1"
        ;;
        -h|--help|-help|--h)
            showUsage
            exit
        ;;
    esac
done

Answered   2023-09-20 20:29:09

I wanna submit my project : https://github.com/flyingangel/argparser

source argparser.sh
parse_args "$@"

Simple as that. The environment will be populated with variables with the same name as the arguments

Answered   2023-09-20 20:29:09

This is how I do in a function to avoid breaking getopts run at the same time somewhere higher in stack:

function waitForWeb () {
   local OPTIND=1 OPTARG OPTION
   local host=localhost port=8080 proto=http
   while getopts "h:p:r:" OPTION; do
      case "$OPTION" in
      h)
         host="$OPTARG"
         ;;
      p)
         port="$OPTARG"
         ;;
      r)
         proto="$OPTARG"
         ;;
      esac
   done
...
}

Answered   2023-09-20 20:29:09

I'd like to offer my version of option parsing, that allows for the following:

-s p1
--stage p1
-w somefolder
--workfolder somefolder
-sw p1 somefolder
-e=hello

Also allows for this (could be unwanted):

-s--workfolder p1 somefolder
-se=hello p1
-swe=hello p1 somefolder

You have to decide before use if = is to be used on an option or not. This is to keep the code clean(ish).

while [[ $# > 0 ]]
do
    key="$1"
    while [[ ${key+x} ]]
    do
        case $key in
            -s*|--stage)
                STAGE="$2"
                shift # option has parameter
                ;;
            -w*|--workfolder)
                workfolder="$2"
                shift # option has parameter
                ;;
            -e=*)
                EXAMPLE="${key#*=}"
                break # option has been fully handled
                ;;
            *)
                # unknown option
                echo Unknown option: $key #1>&2
                exit 10 # either this: my preferred way to handle unknown options
                break # or this: do this to signal the option has been handled (if exit isn't used)
                ;;
        esac
        # prepare for next option in this key, if any
        [[ "$key" = -? || "$key" == --* ]] && unset key || key="${key/#-?/-}"
    done
    shift # option(s) fully processed, proceed to next input argument
done

Answered   2023-09-20 20:29:09

  • what's the meaning for "+x" on ${key+x} ? - anyone
  • It is a test to see if 'key' is present or not. Further down I unset key and this breaks the inner while loop. - anyone

There are several ways to parse cmdline args (e.g. GNU getopt (not portable) vs BSD (MacOS) getopt vs getopts) - all problematic. This solution

  • is portable!
  • has zero dependencies, only relies on bash built-ins
  • allows for both short and long options
  • handles whitespace or simultaneously the use of = separator between option and argument
  • supports concatenated short option style -vxf
  • handles option with optional arguments (E.g. --color vs --color=always),
  • correctly detects and reports unknown options
  • supports -- to signal end of options, and
  • doesn't require code bloat compared with alternatives for the same feature set. I.e. succinct, and therefore easier to maintain

Examples: Any of

# flag
-f
--foo

# option with required argument
-b"Hello World"
-b "Hello World"
--bar "Hello World"
--bar="Hello World"

# option with optional argument
--baz
--baz="Optional Hello"

#!/usr/bin/env bash

usage() {
  cat - >&2 <<EOF
NAME
    program-name.sh - Brief description
 
SYNOPSIS
    program-name.sh [-h|--help]
    program-name.sh [-f|--foo]
                    [-b|--bar <arg>]
                    [--baz[=<arg>]]
                    [--]
                    FILE ...

REQUIRED ARGUMENTS
  FILE ...
          input files

OPTIONS
  -h, --help
          Prints this and exits

  -f, --foo
          A flag option
      
  -b, --bar <arg>
          Option requiring an argument <arg>

  --baz[=<arg>]
          Option that has an optional argument <arg>. If <arg>
          is not specified, defaults to 'DEFAULT'
  --     
          Specify end of options; useful if the first non option
          argument starts with a hyphen

EOF
}

fatal() {
    for i; do
        echo -e "${i}" >&2
    done
    exit 1
}

# For long option processing
next_arg() {
    if [[ $OPTARG == *=* ]]; then
        # for cases like '--opt=arg'
        OPTARG="${OPTARG#*=}"
    else
        # for cases like '--opt arg'
        OPTARG="${args[$OPTIND]}"
        OPTIND=$((OPTIND + 1))
    fi
}

# ':' means preceding option character expects one argument, except
# first ':' which make getopts run in silent mode. We handle errors with
# wildcard case catch. Long options are considered as the '-' character
optspec=":hfb:-:"
args=("" "$@")  # dummy first element so $1 and $args[1] are aligned
while getopts "$optspec" optchar; do
    case "$optchar" in
        h) usage; exit 0 ;;
        f) foo=1 ;;
        b) bar="$OPTARG" ;;
        -) # long option processing
            case "$OPTARG" in
                help)
                    usage; exit 0 ;;
                foo)
                    foo=1 ;;
                bar|bar=*) next_arg
                    bar="$OPTARG" ;;
                baz)
                    baz=DEFAULT ;;
                baz=*) next_arg
                    baz="$OPTARG" ;;
                -) break ;;
                *) fatal "Unknown option '--${OPTARG}'" "see '${0} --help' for usage" ;;
            esac
            ;;
        *) fatal "Unknown option: '-${OPTARG}'" "See '${0} --help' for usage" ;;
    esac
done

shift $((OPTIND-1))

if [ "$#" -eq 0 ]; then
    fatal "Expected at least one required argument FILE" \
    "See '${0} --help' for usage"
fi

echo "foo=$foo, bar=$bar, baz=$baz, files=${@}"

Answered   2023-09-20 20:29:09

  • It's something. I much prefer this over the classic getopts garbage, but the way it parses is not "natural". ./program-name.sh NOTES.md -f produced foo=, bar=, baz=, files=NOTES.md -f and it thought -f was part of the file name. It did not set foo=1. It doesn't do what I want it to do. - anyone
  • @Kalec that would be because -f comes after a non-option argument NOTES.md and by design, option processing stops after first non-option argument like many unix commands, since you could have different subcommands with different sub options. -f in this case is the stored in $2 with NOTES.md in $1. You could repeat option parsing if you so wish, until $# -eq 0 - anyone

Based on other answers here, this my version:

#!/bin/bash
set -e

function parse() {
    for arg in "$@"; do # transform long options to short ones
        shift
        case "$arg" in
            "--name") set -- "$@" "-n" ;;
            "--verbose") set -- "$@" "-v" ;;
            *) set -- "$@" "$arg"
        esac
    done

    while getopts "n:v" optname  # left to ":" are flags that expect a value, right to the ":" are flags that expect nothing
    do
        case "$optname" in
            "n") name=${OPTARG} ;;
            "v") verbose=true ;;
        esac
    done
    shift "$((OPTIND-1))" # shift out all the already processed options
}


parse "$@"
echo "hello $name"
if [ ! -z $verbose ]; then echo 'nice to meet you!'; fi

Usage:

$ ./parse.sh
hello
$ ./parse.sh -n YOUR_NAME
hello YOUR_NAME
$ ./parse.sh -n YOUR_NAME -v
hello YOUR_NAME
nice to meet you!
$ ./parse.sh -v -n YOUR_NAME
hello YOUR_NAME
nice to meet you!
$ ./parse.sh -v
hello 
nice to meet you!

Answered   2023-09-20 20:29:09

  • Could you please explain why you think this version is better than others? With no explanation it’s hard to understand why we should use this version rather than another. - anyone

Solution that preserves unhandled arguments. Demos Included.

Here is my solution. It is VERY flexible and unlike others, shouldn't require external packages and handles leftover arguments cleanly.

Usage is: ./myscript -flag flagvariable -otherflag flagvar2

All you have to do is edit the validflags line. It prepends a hyphen and searches all arguments. It then defines the next argument as the flag name e.g.

./myscript -flag flagvariable -otherflag flagvar2
echo $flag $otherflag
flagvariable flagvar2

The main code (short version, verbose with examples further down, also a version with erroring out):

#!/usr/bin/env bash
#shebang.io
validflags="rate time number"
count=1
for arg in $@
do
    match=0
    argval=$1
    for flag in $validflags
    do
        sflag="-"$flag
        if [ "$argval" == "$sflag" ]
        then
            declare $flag=$2
            match=1
        fi
    done
        if [ "$match" == "1" ]
    then
        shift 2
    else
        leftovers=$(echo $leftovers $argval)
        shift
    fi
    count=$(($count+1))
done
#Cleanup then restore the leftovers
shift $#
set -- $leftovers

The verbose version with built in echo demos:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
#shebang.io
rate=30
time=30
number=30
echo "all args
$@"
validflags="rate time number"
count=1
for arg in $@
do
    match=0
    argval=$1
#   argval=$(echo $@ | cut -d ' ' -f$count)
    for flag in $validflags
    do
            sflag="-"$flag
        if [ "$argval" == "$sflag" ]
        then
            declare $flag=$2
            match=1
        fi
    done
        if [ "$match" == "1" ]
    then
        shift 2
    else
        leftovers=$(echo $leftovers $argval)
        shift
    fi
    count=$(($count+1))
done

#Cleanup then restore the leftovers
echo "pre final clear args:
$@"
shift $#
echo "post final clear args:
$@"
set -- $leftovers
echo "all post set args:
$@"
echo arg1: $1 arg2: $2

echo leftovers: $leftovers
echo rate $rate time $time number $number

Final one, this one errors out if an invalid -argument is passed through.

#!/usr/bin/env bash
#shebang.io
rate=30
time=30
number=30
validflags="rate time number"
count=1
for arg in $@
do
    argval=$1
    match=0
        if [ "${argval:0:1}" == "-" ]
    then
        for flag in $validflags
        do
                sflag="-"$flag
            if [ "$argval" == "$sflag" ]
            then
                declare $flag=$2
                match=1
            fi
        done
        if [ "$match" == "0" ]
        then
            echo "Bad argument: $argval"
            exit 1
        fi
        shift 2
    else
        leftovers=$(echo $leftovers $argval)
        shift
    fi
    count=$(($count+1))
done
#Cleanup then restore the leftovers
shift $#
set -- $leftovers
echo rate $rate time $time number $number
echo leftovers: $leftovers

Pros: What it does, it handles very well. It preserves unused arguments which a lot of the other solutions here don't. It also allows for variables to be called without being defined by hand in the script. It also allows prepopulation of variables if no corresponding argument is given. (See verbose example).

Cons: Can't parse a single complex arg string e.g. -xcvf would process as a single argument. You could somewhat easily write additional code into mine that adds this functionality though.

Answered   2023-09-20 20:29:09

Here is my approach - using regexp.

  • no getopts
  • it handles block of short parameters -qwerty
  • it handles short parameters -q -w -e
  • it handles long options --qwerty
  • you can pass attribute to short or long option (if you are using block of short options, attribute is attached to the last option)
  • you can use spaces or = to provide attributes, but attribute matches until encountering hyphen+space "delimiter", so in --q=qwe ty qwe ty is one attribute
  • it handles mix of all above so -o a -op attr ibute --option=att ribu te --op-tion attribute --option att-ribute is valid

script:

#!/usr/bin/env sh

help_menu() {
  echo "Usage:

  ${0##*/} [-h][-l FILENAME][-d]

Options:

  -h, --help
    display this help and exit

  -l, --logfile=FILENAME
    filename

  -d, --debug
    enable debug
  "
}

parse_options() {
  case $opt in
    h|help)
      help_menu
      exit
     ;;
    l|logfile)
      logfile=${attr}
      ;;
    d|debug)
      debug=true
      ;;
    *)
      echo "Unknown option: ${opt}\nRun ${0##*/} -h for help.">&2
      exit 1
  esac
}
options=$@

until [ "$options" = "" ]; do
  if [[ $options =~ (^ *(--([a-zA-Z0-9-]+)|-([a-zA-Z0-9-]+))(( |=)(([\_\.\?\/\\a-zA-Z0-9]?[ -]?[\_\.\?a-zA-Z0-9]+)+))?(.*)|(.+)) ]]; then
    if [[ ${BASH_REMATCH[3]} ]]; then # for --option[=][attribute] or --option[=][attribute]
      opt=${BASH_REMATCH[3]}
      attr=${BASH_REMATCH[7]}
      options=${BASH_REMATCH[9]}
    elif [[ ${BASH_REMATCH[4]} ]]; then # for block options -qwert[=][attribute] or single short option -a[=][attribute]
      pile=${BASH_REMATCH[4]}
      while (( ${#pile} > 1 )); do
        opt=${pile:0:1}
        attr=""
        pile=${pile/${pile:0:1}/}
        parse_options
      done
      opt=$pile
      attr=${BASH_REMATCH[7]}
      options=${BASH_REMATCH[9]}
    else # leftovers that don't match
      opt=${BASH_REMATCH[10]}
      options=""
    fi
    parse_options
  fi
done

Answered   2023-09-20 20:29:09

  • Like this one. Maybe just add -e param to echo with new line. - anyone

Mixing positional and flag-based arguments

--param=arg (equals delimited)

Freely mixing flags between positional arguments:

./script.sh dumbo 127.0.0.1 --environment=production -q -d
./script.sh dumbo --environment=production 127.0.0.1 --quiet -d

can be accomplished with a fairly concise approach:

# process flags
pointer=1
while [[ $pointer -le $# ]]; do
   param=${!pointer}
   if [[ $param != "-"* ]]; then ((pointer++)) # not a parameter flag so advance pointer
   else
      case $param in
         # paramter-flags with arguments
         -e=*|--environment=*) environment="${param#*=}";;
                  --another=*) another="${param#*=}";;

         # binary flags
         -q|--quiet) quiet=true;;
                 -d) debug=true;;
      esac

      # splice out pointer frame from positional list
      [[ $pointer -gt 1 ]] \
         && set -- ${@:1:((pointer - 1))} ${@:((pointer + 1)):$#} \
         || set -- ${@:((pointer + 1)):$#};
   fi
done

# positional remain
node_name=$1
ip_address=$2

--param arg (space delimited)

It's usualy clearer to not mix --flag=value and --flag value styles.

./script.sh dumbo 127.0.0.1 --environment production -q -d

This is a little dicey to read, but is still valid

./script.sh dumbo --environment production 127.0.0.1 --quiet -d

Source

# process flags
pointer=1
while [[ $pointer -le $# ]]; do
   if [[ ${!pointer} != "-"* ]]; then ((pointer++)) # not a parameter flag so advance pointer
   else
      param=${!pointer}
      ((pointer_plus = pointer + 1))
      slice_len=1

      case $param in
         # paramter-flags with arguments
         -e|--environment) environment=${!pointer_plus}; ((slice_len++));;
                --another) another=${!pointer_plus}; ((slice_len++));;

         # binary flags
         -q|--quiet) quiet=true;;
                 -d) debug=true;;
      esac

      # splice out pointer frame from positional list
      [[ $pointer -gt 1 ]] \
         && set -- ${@:1:((pointer - 1))} ${@:((pointer + $slice_len)):$#} \
         || set -- ${@:((pointer + $slice_len)):$#};
   fi
done

# positional remain
node_name=$1
ip_address=$2

Answered   2023-09-20 20:29:09

Note that getopt(1) was a short living mistake from AT&T.

getopt was created in 1984 but already buried in 1986 because it was not really usable.

A proof for the fact that getopt is very outdated is that the getopt(1) man page still mentions "$*" instead of "$@", that was added to the Bourne Shell in 1986 together with the getopts(1) shell builtin in order to deal with arguments with spaces inside.

BTW: if you are interested in parsing long options in shell scripts, it may be of interest to know that the getopt(3) implementation from libc (Solaris) and ksh93 both added a uniform long option implementation that supports long options as aliases for short options. This causes ksh93 and the Bourne Shell to implement a uniform interface for long options via getopts.

An example for long options taken from the Bourne Shell man page:

getopts "f:(file)(input-file)o:(output-file)" OPTX "$@"

shows how long option aliases may be used in both Bourne Shell and ksh93.

See the man page of a recent Bourne Shell:

http://schillix.sourceforge.net/man/man1/bosh.1.html

and the man page for getopt(3) from OpenSolaris:

http://schillix.sourceforge.net/man/man3c/getopt.3c.html

and last, the getopt(1) man page to verify the outdated $*:

http://schillix.sourceforge.net/man/man1/getopt.1.html

Answered   2023-09-20 20:29:09

  • This is Solaris-specific and doesn't cover bash which the OP specifically requested - anyone

I have write a bash helper to write a nice bash tool

project home: https://gitlab.mbedsys.org/mbedsys/bashopts

example:

#!/bin/bash -ei

# load the library
. bashopts.sh

# Enable backtrace dusplay on error
trap 'bashopts_exit_handle' ERR

# Initialize the library
bashopts_setup -n "$0" -d "This is myapp tool description displayed on help message" -s "$HOME/.config/myapprc"

# Declare the options
bashopts_declare -n first_name -l first -o f -d "First name" -t string -i -s -r
bashopts_declare -n last_name -l last -o l -d "Last name" -t string -i -s -r
bashopts_declare -n display_name -l display-name -t string -d "Display name" -e "\$first_name \$last_name"
bashopts_declare -n age -l number -d "Age" -t number
bashopts_declare -n email_list -t string -m add -l email -d "Email adress"

# Parse arguments
bashopts_parse_args "$@"

# Process argument
bashopts_process_args

will give help:

NAME:
    ./example.sh - This is myapp tool description displayed on help message

USAGE:
    [options and commands] [-- [extra args]]

OPTIONS:
    -h,--help                          Display this help
    -n,--non-interactive true          Non interactive mode - [$bashopts_non_interactive] (type:boolean, default:false)
    -f,--first "John"                  First name - [$first_name] (type:string, default:"")
    -l,--last "Smith"                  Last name - [$last_name] (type:string, default:"")
    --display-name "John Smith"        Display name - [$display_name] (type:string, default:"$first_name $last_name")
    --number 0                         Age - [$age] (type:number, default:0)
    --email                            Email adress - [$email_list] (type:string, default:"")

enjoy :)

Answered   2023-09-20 20:29:09

  • I get this on Mac OS X: ``` lib/bashopts.sh: line 138: declare: -A: invalid option declare: usage: declare [-afFirtx] [-p] [name[=value] ...] Error in lib/bashopts.sh:138. 'declare -x -A bashopts_optprop_name' exited with status 2 Call tree: 1: lib/controller.sh:4 source(...) Exiting with status 1 ``` - anyone
  • You need Bash version 4 to use this. On Mac, the default version is 3. You can use home brew to install bash 4. - anyone

Assume we create a shell script named test_args.sh as follow

#!/bin/sh
until [ $# -eq 0 ]
do
  name=${1:1}; shift;
  if [[ -z "$1" || $1 == -* ]] ; then eval "export $name=true"; else eval "export $name=$1"; shift; fi  
done
echo "year=$year month=$month day=$day flag=$flag"

After we run the following command:

sh test_args.sh  -year 2017 -flag  -month 12 -day 22 

The output would be:

year=2017 month=12 day=22 flag=true

Answered   2023-09-20 20:29:09

  • This takes the same approach as Noah's answer, but has less safety checks / safeguards. This allows us to write arbitrary arguments into the script's environment and I'm pretty sure your use of eval here may allow command injection. - anyone

Here is a getopts that achieves the parsing with minimal code and allows you to define what you wish to extract in one case using eval with substring.

Basically eval "local key='val'"

function myrsync() {

        local backup=("${@}") args=(); while [[ $# -gt 0 ]]; do k="$1";
                case "$k" in
                    ---sourceuser|---sourceurl|---targetuser|---targeturl|---file|---exclude|---include)
                        eval "local ${k:3}='${2}'"; shift; shift    # Past two arguments
                    ;;
                    *)  # Unknown option  
                        args+=("$1"); shift;                        # Past argument only
                    ;;                                              
                esac                                                
        done; set -- "${backup[@]}"                                 # Restore $@


        echo "${sourceurl}"
}

Declares the variables as locals instead of globals as most answers here.

Called as:

myrsync ---sourceurl http://abc.def.g ---sourceuser myuser ... 

The ${k:3} is basically a substring to remove the first --- from the key.

Answered   2023-09-20 20:29:09

I wanted to share what I made for parsing options. Some of my needs were not fulfilled by the answers here so I had to come up with this: https://github.com/MihirLuthra/bash_option_parser

This supports:

  • Suboption parsing
  • Alias names for options
  • Optional args
  • Variable args
  • Printing usage and errors

Let's say we have a command named fruit with usage as follows:

fruit <fruit-name> ...
   [-e|—-eat|—-chew]
   [-c|--cut <how> <why>]
   <command> [<args>] 

-e takes no args
-c takes two args i.e. how to cut and why to cut
fruit itself takes at least one argument.
<command> is for suboptions like apple, orange etc. (similar to git which has suboptions commit, push etc. )

So to parse it:

parse_options \
    'fruit'                         '1 ...'  \
    '-e'     , '--eat' , '--chew'   '0'      \
    '-c'     , '--cut'              '1 1'    \
    'apple'                         'S'      \
    'orange'                        'S'      \
    ';' \
    "$@"

Now if there was any usage error, it can be printed using option_parser_error_msg as follows:

retval=$?

if [ $retval -ne 0 ]; then
    # this will manage error messages if
    # insufficient or extra args are supplied

    option_parser_error_msg "$retval"

    # This will print the usage
    print_usage 'fruit'
    exit 1
fi

To check now if some options was passed,

if [ -n "${OPTIONS[-c]}" ]
then
    echo "-c was passed"

    # args can be accessed in a 2D-array-like format
    echo "Arg1 to -c = ${ARGS[-c,0]}"
    echo "Arg2 to -c = ${ARGS[-c,1]}"

fi

Suboption parsing can also be done by passing $shift_count to parse_options_detailed which makes it start parsing after shifting args to reach args of suboption. It is demonstrated in this example.

A detailed description is provided in the readme and examples in the repository.

Answered   2023-09-20 20:29:09