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diff --git a/README.rst b/README.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e57c5ec --- /dev/null +++ b/README.rst @@ -0,0 +1,101 @@ +.. vi: tw=100 + +Getgopt +======= + +**Getgopt** is an extremely very simple implementation of POSIX C's ``getopt(3)`` function for +golang. The entire library consists of 4 exported global variables, 1 exported function, and less +than 100 lines of code (``sed -e '/^$/d' -e '/^\s*\*/d' -e '/^\s*\/\*/d' getgopt.go | wc -l``). I +wrote this library because I didn't like how all the other alternatives for normal command line +parsing were so overly complex. Go is all about keeping things simple, so let's keep flag parsing +simple. + + +Usage +===== + +There is only 1 function for you to use, and that is `getgopt.Getopt()`. The function works *almost* +the same way that the POSIX C ``getopt`` function works. Here is an example of it's usage: + +.. code-block:: go + + package main + + import ( + "fmt" + "os" + + "github.com/Mango0x45/getgopt" + ) + + func main() { + for opt := byte(0); getgopt.Getopt(len(os.Args), os.Args, ":a:bcd", &opt); { + switch opt { + case 'a': + fmt.Printf("Parsed the -a flag with the argument '%s'\n", + getgopt.Optarg) + case 'b': + fmt.Println("Parsed the -b flag") + case 'c': + /* ... */ + case 'd': + /* ... */ + case '?': + fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "Invalid flag '%c', read the manpage\n", + getgopt.Optopt) + os.Exit(1) + case ':': + fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "The flag '%c' requires an argument\n", + getgopt.Optopt) + os.Exit(1) + } + } + + fmt.Printf("The first non-option argument is '%s'\n", os.Args[getgopt.Optind]) + } + +After parsing a flag the ``Getopt()`` function returns true if there are still more flags to parse, +or false if there are none more. This means that we can use it in a ``for`` or ``while`` loop to +iterate over all of our arguments. As its arguments, the ``Getopt()`` function takes (in this +order), the count of command line arguments, the command line arguments, an *optstring*, and a +pointer to a byte where the parsed flag will be stored. After parsing a flag, the byte that was +passed as the last parameter will either have the value of the flag or one of ``':'`` and ``'?'``. +The value of ``opt`` is set to ``'?'`` if the user attempted to pass a flag that was not specified +by the given *optstring*. If the user specifies a flag that requires an argument without actually +passing an argument, then ``opt`` will be set to ``':'`` if the first character in the *optstring* +is ``':'`` and otherwise it will be ``'?'``. + +The *optstring* is a string passed as the 3rd argument to ``Getopt()`` which specified which flags +you want to be able to handle. Each flag you want to handle is given as a single character in the +string in any order. For example if you want to support the ``-a``, ``-b``, and ``-x`` flags you can +do:: + + getgopt.Getopt(len(os.Args), os.Args, "abx", &opt) + /* or */ + getgopt.Getopt(len(os.Args), os.Args, "bxa", &opt) + +If you want a flag to take an argument, you should suffix the character with a ``':'``. So using the +above example, if we want the ``-b`` flag to take an argument, we could write:: + + getgopt.Getopt(len(os.Args), os.Args, "ab:x", &opt) + +Finally, by default the ``Getopt()`` function will print diagnostic error messages to standard +output when the user fails to provide an argument to a flag that expects one or passes an invalid +flag. If you would like to not have these diagnostics printed you can either prefix the optstring +with ``':'`` or you can set the ``Opterr`` global variable to ``false``. Both of the following are +equivalent:: + + getgopt.Getopt(len(os.Args), os.Args, ":ab:x", &opt) + /* or */ + getgopt.Opterr = false + getgopt.Getopt(len(os.Args), os.Args, "ab:x", &opt) + +There is a *slight* difference in behavior though which was explained above. + +Finally, there are 3 other global variables you can access, these are ``Optarg``, ``Optind``, and +``Optopt``. When you parse a flag which requires an argument, that argument can be found as a string +in the ``Optarg`` variable. ``Optind`` is a variable which during the parsing of the flags holds the +index of command line argument being parsed. After the flags are parsed though it holds the index of +the first non-option argument in the provided argument list. ``Optopt`` functions similarly to the +byte you pass as the functions final argument, but it holds the flag which caused the last parsing +error. |