Handling command line options before and after an argument in C

Question

So far I've been using getopt_long to parse options for a command line C program.

Is there a way to stop getopt_long parsing when it hits a non-option argument? If not, what's the best way to handle this in C?

To give an example, I'd like to handle commands in a similar way to git, and have general arguments before a command, and command-specific arguments after it:

git [general options] <command> [command options]

e.g.:

git --bare commit -a
git -p --bare status -s

-p and --bare are general options, and can be used with all commands, whereas -a is specific to the commit command, and -s specific to the status command.

Using getopt_long will try and parse all the options first, and then leave the non-option arguments to be handled. I'd ideally like to stop parsing once I hit a non-option (i.e. the command), and then pass the remaining arguments to a command-specific option parser.

hmakholm left over Monica · Accepted Answer · 2011-08-15 15:37:29Z

7

The GNU Getopt manual says:

POSIX demands the following behavior: The first non-option stops option processing. This mode is selected by either setting the environment variable POSIXLY_CORRECT or beginning the options argument string with a plus sign (‘+’).

answered Aug 15, 2011 at 15:37

hmakholm left over Monica

23.4k3 gold badges55 silver badges75 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

2 Comments

Fred Foo Over a year ago

+1. It's funny how this appears in the Linux Programmer's Manual, i.e. the Linux manpages, but not in the "authorative" Glibc manual.

Dave Challis Over a year ago

Thanks, that works perfectly. I'd been staring too long at getopt_long documentation and not enough at man getopt!

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Handling command line options before and after an argument in C

1 Answer 1

2 Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

2 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related