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getopts(1)							    getopts(1)

NAME
       getopts - parse utility (command) options

SYNOPSIS
       optstring name [arg ...]

DESCRIPTION
       is used to retrieve options and option-arguments from a list of parame‐
       ters.

       Each time it is invoked, places the value of the	 next  option  in  the
       shell variable specified by the operand and the index of the next argu‐
       ment to be processed in	the  shell  variable  Whenever	the  shell  is
       invoked, is initialized to 1.

       When  the  option  requires  an option-argument, places it in the shell
       variable If no option was found, or if the option that was  found  does
       not have an option-argument, is unset.

       If  an option character not contained in the optstring operand is found
       where an option character is expected, the shell variable specified  by
       name is set to the question-mark character.  In this case, if the first
       character in optstring is a colon the shell  variable  is  set  to  the
       option  character  found,  but  no output is written to standard error;
       otherwise, the shell variable is unset  and  a  diagnostic  message  is
       written to standard error.  This condition is considered to be an error
       detected in the way arguments were presented to the  invoking  applica‐
       tion, but is not an error in processing.

       If an option-argument is missing:

	      ·	 If  the  first	 character  of optstring is a colon, the shell
		 variable specified by name is set to the colon character  and
		 the shell variable is set to the option character found.

	      ·	 Otherwise, the shell variable specified by name is set to the
		 question-mark character, the shell variable is unset,	and  a
		 diagnostic  message  is  written to the standard error.  This
		 condition is considered to be an error detected  in  the  way
		 arguments  are	 presented to the invoking application, but is
		 not an error in processing; a diagnostic message  is  written
		 as stated, but the exit status is zero.

       When  the  end  of  options  is	encountered, exits with a return value
       greater than zero.  The shell variable is set to the index of the first
       nonoption-argument,  where  the	first  argument is considered to be an
       option argument if there are no other  non-option  arguments  appearing
       before  it,  or	the value + 1 if there are no nonoption-arguments; the
       name variable is set to the question-mark character.  Any of  the  fol‐
       lowing  identifies  the	end  of options: the special option finding an
       argument that does not begin with a or encountering an error.

       The shell variables and are local to the caller of and are not exported
       by default.

       The  shell  variable specified by the name operand, and affect the cur‐
       rent shell execution environment.

   Operands
       The following operands are supported:

	      optstring	     A string containing the option characters	recog‐
			     nized  by	the utility invoking If a character is
			     followed by a colon the option will  be  expected
			     to	 have an argument, which should be supplied as
			     a separate argument.  Applications should specify
			     an	 option	 character  and its option-argument as
			     separate arguments, but will interpret the	 char‐
			     acters  following	an  option character requiring
			     arguments as an argument whether or not  this  is
			     done.  An	explicit null option-argument need not
			     be recognised if it is not supplied as a separate
			     argument  when  is	 invoked. The characters ques‐
			     tion-mark and colon must not be  used  as	option
			     characters	 by  an	 application. The use of other
			     option characters that are not alphanumeric  pro‐
			     duces  unspecified	 results.  If the option-argu‐
			     ment is not supplied as a separate argument  from
			     the  option  character,  the  value  in  will  be
			     stripped of the  option  character	 and  the  The
			     first  character  in optstring will determine how
			     will behave if an option character is  not	 known
			     or an option-argument is missing.

	      name	     The  name	of  a shell variable that is set by to
			     the option character that was found.

       by default parses positional parameters passed to  the  invoking	 shell
       procedures.   If	 args  are given, they are parsed instead of the posi‐
       tional parameters.

EXTERNAL INFLUENCES
   Environment Variable
       The following environment variable affects the execution of  the	 util‐
       ity:

	      Used by	     as	 the  index  of	 the  next argument to be pro‐
			     cessed.

ERRORS
       Whenever an error is detected and the first character in the  optstring
       operand is not a colon a diagnostic message will be written to standard
       error with the following information in an unspecified format:

	      ·	 The invoking program name will be identified in the  message.
		 The invoking program name will be the value of the shell spe‐
		 cial parameter 0 at the time the utility is invoked.  A  name
		 equivalent to:

		 may be used.

	      ·	 If  an	 option	 is found that was not specified in optstring,
		 this error will be identified and the invalid option  charac‐
		 ter will be identified in the message.

	      ·	 If  an	 option	 requiring an option-argument is found, but an
		 option-argument is not found, this error will	be  identified
		 and  the  invalid  option character will be identified in the
		 message.

EXAMPLES
       Since affects the current shell execution environment, it is  generally
       provided as a shell regular built-in.  If it is called in a subshell or
       separate utility execution environment such as one of the following:

       it does not affect the shell variables in the caller's environment.

       Note that shell functions share with the calling shell even though  the
       positional  parameters  are changed.  Functions that use to parse their
       arguments should save the value of  on  entry  and  restore  it	before
       returning.   However,  there  will be cases when a function must change
       for the calling shell.

       The following example script parses and displays its arguments:

	      aflag=
	      bflag=
	      while getopts ab: name
		  do
		      case $name in
		      a)
			      aflag=1;;
		      b)
			      bflag=1
			      bval="$OPTARG";;
		      ?)
			      printf "Usage: %s: [-a] [-b value] args\n" $0
			      exit 2;;
		      esac
		  done
	      if [ ! -z "$aflag" ] ; then
		      printf "Option -a specified\n"
	      fi
	      if [ ! -z "$bflag" ] ; then
		      printf "Option -b "%s" specified\n" "$bval"
	      fi
	      shift $(($OPTIND -1))
	      printf "Remaining arguments are: %s\n" "$*"

SEE ALSO
       getopt(1), ksh(1), sh-posix(1), sh(1), getopt(3C).

STANDARDS CONFORMANCE
								    getopts(1)
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