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Args(3C++)


Args -- UNIX command line arguments

Synopsis

   #include <Args.h>
   namespace SCO_SC {
   

class Args { public:

// Constructor enum { intermix = ..., plusoptions = ... }; Args(int argc, const char*const* argv, const char* optstr, int bits = 0, const char*const* keyword_options = 0);

// Test options and get values

int isoptset(char opt) const; int isoptset(const char* key) const; char flag(char opt) const; char flag(const char* key) const; const char* value(char opt) const; const char* value(const char* key) const; const char* subvalue(char opt, const char* name) const; const char* subvalue(const char* key, const char* name) const; const char*arg(int i) const; const char* progname() const; int nargs() const; int error() const;

// Objections

static Objection unexpected_opt; static Objection missing_opt; static Objection missing_val; static Objection opt_as_val; };

class Opt { public: char flag() const; char chr() const; const char* keyword() const; const char* value() const; };

class Subopt { public: const char* name() const; const char* value() const; };

class Optsiter { public: Optsiter(const Args& args); int next(const Opt*& opt); const Args* the_args() const; };

class Suboptsiter { public: Suboptsiter(const Opt& opt); int next(const Subopt*& subopt); const Opt* the_opt() const; };

class Argsiter { public: Argsiter(const Args& args); int next(const char*&arg); const Args* the_args() const; }; }

Description

A UNIX command is invoked with a series of options and non-option arguments. An option is a letter (or keyword; see below) preceded by a "-" (and optionally by a "+"; see below). The "-" (and optionally "+") character is called the option's flag. An option may be followed by a character string, called its value. White space between an option and its value is optional.

A collection of options, none of which have values, may be specified in an option block, for example, "-abc". Alternatively, they may be specified individually; for example, "-a -b -c". The two forms are equivalent. (Of course, if "+" is specified as an option flag, then "+" and "-" options must be specified separately.)

Some option values are further broken up into suboptions (see below).

The leftmost command line argument that is neither an option, option block, nor option value is an argument. All command line arguments to the right of the leftmost argument are also arguments, regardless of whether they start with a flag. However, if intermixing of options and arguments is desired, this can be optionally specified. In either case, the special option "--" can be used to indicate that all command line arguments to the right are to be treated as arguments, regardless of whether they start with a flag.

The Args class scans the command line and finds all of the options, values, suboptions, and arguments. These are saved in the Args object and can be subsequently examined (but not modified).

Keyword options

Options consisting of more than a single character are called keyword options. For example, on some machines, in

       cc -dryrun -c foo.c

"dryrun" is a keyword option. Specifying a string as a keyword option to Args causes any command line argument which matches that string (prefixed by a flag) to be treated as that keyword option, even if it consists of a sequence of legal single-character options.

Suboptions

The value of an option specified as having suboptions is assumed to be a series of one or more strings separated by ","s with no intervening spaces. Each suboption can be either a simple string name of the suboption), or a name followed by an "=" followed by another string (the value of the suboption).

For example, suppose a program was invoked as follows:

       foo -O alpha=tom,beta,gamma=harry

Assuming that option "O" was specified as having suboptions, the first suboption has name "alpha" and value "tom", the second suboption has name "beta" and value " (the null string), and the third suboption has name "gamma" and value "harry".

Args

Constructors

   enum { intermix = ..., plusoptions = ... };
   Args(int argc, const char*const* argv,
       const char* optstr, int bits = 0,
       const char*const* keyword_options = 0);

The first two arguments are the argc and argv arguments with which main is invoked. Each non-keyword option acceptable to the program must be contained in the string pointed to by optstr. If the option is to have a value, the letter must be followed by a ":". If the option is to have suboptions, the letter must be followed by a ";". If bits&intermix is true, then intermixing of options and arguments is allowed. If bits&plusoptions is true, then "+" is treated as an option flag

The optional keyword_options is a pointer to a NULL-terminated list of allowed keyword options. If a keyword in this list is to have a value, its final character should be a ":". If a keyword in this list is to have suboptions, its final character should be a ";". (The final ":" or ";" is not considered part of the keyword.)

Copy construction and assignment are not defined.

Test options and get values

   int isoptset(char opt)const;
   int isoptset(const char* key)const;

Returns nonzero if the (keyword) option appeared on the command line.

   char flag(char opt)const;
   char flag(const char* key)const;

Returns the flag with which the rightmost occurrence of the (keyword) option on the command line was set. If the option was not set, the character "\0" is returned.

   const char* value(char opt)const;
   const char* value(const char* key)const;

Returns a pointer to the value specified with the rightmost occurrence of the (keyword) option on the command line. If the option was not set or no value was specified, the 0 pointer is returned.

   const char* subvalue(char opt, const char* name)const;
   const char* subvalue(const char* key,
       const char* name)const;

Returns a pointer to the string that was specified as the value of the rightmost occurrence of the suboption with the given name for the rightmost occurrence of (keyword) option on the command line. If the name was given but no value provided, the return value will be a pointer to the null string. If the option was not specified, or the name was not specified in the rightmost occurrence of this option, then the 0 pointer is returned.

   const char* arg(int i)const;

Returns the i'th (non-option) argument, or 0 if there was no such argument. The arguments are numbered starting at zero. Note that argv[0], conventionally the program name, is not accessible via this function. (See progname.)

   const char* progname()const;

Returns a pointer to the program name, argv[0].

   int nargs()const;

Returns the number of (non-option) arguments. Note that argv[0], conventionally the program name, is not included in this count.

   int error()const;

Returns nonzero if any of the Objections unexpected_opt, missing_opt, or missing_val were raised. Programs can use this if they wish to exit in response to option errors.

Objections

   static Objection unexpected_opt;

Raised when an option not specified in the legal_opts list is encountered in the input. The default and recovery action is to print a message and ignore the unexpected option.

   static Objection missing_opt;

Raised when "-" appears by itself, without any following option letters. The default and recovery action is to print a message and ignore the "-".

   static Objection missing_val;

Raised when an option specified in the legal_opts list as requiring a value (i.e., followed by a ":") is encountered in the input without a value. This can occur if the option requiring a value is in an option block, or is the last field on the command line.

Note that getopt(3C) does not currently enforce the requirement that options taking values cannot be mixed with options that do not take values. However, it does state the requirement and warns that it may be enforced in a future release. We enforce it now since failure to do so would conceal important errors.

The default and recovery action is to print a message and ignore the option.

   static Objection opt_as_val;

Raised when the value for an option begins with a flag character. This usually means that the value for the option was omitted. However, in order to be consistent with UNIX handling of this case, the default and recovery actions are to ignore the (probable) error and treat the string beginning with the flag character as the value of the preceding option.

An application can catch this Objection to handle the case differently. The argument passed to the user-appointed handler will be the option whose value appears to be missing. If the user handler returns, the suspicious value will be assigned to this option.

Iterators

Options, suboptions, and arguments are returned in the order in which they appeared on the command line.

Opt

Value returned by Optsiter (see below).

   char flag() const;

Returns the flag associated with this option.

   char chr() const;

If this option is a non-keyword option, returns the option, otherwise returns "\0".

   const char* keyword() const;

If this option is a keyword option, returns a pointer to the keyword, otherwise returns 0.

   const char* value() const;

Returns a pointer to the value associated with this option, or 0 if no value was specified.

Copy construction and assignment are not defined.

Subopt

Value returned by Suboptsiter (see below).

   const char* name() const;

Returns a pointer to the name of this suboption.

   const char* value() const;

Returns a pointer to the value of this suboption. If no value was provided, the return value will be a pointer to the null string.

Copy construction and assignment are not defined.

Optsiter

   Optsiter(const Args& args);

Iterates over all the options.

   int next(const Opt*& opt);

Sets opt to a pointer to an Opt object describing the next option, or 0 if there are no more options. Returns nonzero if there was another option.

   const Args* the_args()const;

Returns a pointer to the Args object being iterated over.

Suboptsiter

   Suboptsiter(const Opt& opt);

Iterates over all of the suboptions of the given option.

   int next(const Subopt*& subopt);

Sets subopt to a pointer to a Subopt object describing the next suboption, or 0 if there are no more suboptions. Returns nonzero if there was another suboption.

   const Opt* the_opt()const;

Returns a pointer to the Opt object being iterated over.

Argsiter

   Argsiter(const Args& args);

Iterates over all the (non-option) arguments.

   int next(const char*&arg);

Sets arg to a pointer to the next (non-option) argument. Returns nonzero if there was another argument.

   const Args* the_args()const;

Returns a pointer to the Args object being iterated over.

References

Objection(3C++), getopt(3C)
© 2004 The SCO Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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