1 .\" Copyright (C) 2007 Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@gmail.com>
2 .\" and Copyright (C) 2007 Justin Pryzby <pryzbyj@justinpryzby.com>
4 .\" %%%LICENSE_START(PERMISSIVE_MISC)
5 .\" Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining
6 .\" a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
7 .\" "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including
8 .\" without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,
9 .\" distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to
10 .\" permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to
11 .\" the following conditions:
13 .\" The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be
14 .\" included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
16 .\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
17 .\" EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
18 .\" MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.
19 .\" IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY
20 .\" CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT,
21 .\" TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE
22 .\" SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
25 .TH GETSUBOPT 3 2021-03-22 "GNU" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
27 getsubopt \- parse suboption arguments from a string
30 .B #include <stdlib.h>
32 .BI "int getsubopt(char **restrict " optionp ", char *const *restrict " tokens ,
33 .BI " char **restrict " valuep );
37 Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see
38 .BR feature_test_macros (7)):
44 .\" || _XOPEN_SOURCE && _XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED
45 || /* Since glibc 2.12: */ _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200809L
49 parses the list of comma-separated suboptions provided in
51 (Such a suboption list is typically produced when
53 is used to parse a command line;
54 see for example the \fI\-o\fP option of
56 Each suboption may include an associated value,
57 which is separated from the suboption name by an equal sign.
58 The following is an example of the kind of string
59 that might be passed in
70 argument is a pointer to a NULL-terminated array of pointers to the tokens that
74 The tokens should be distinct, null-terminated strings containing at
75 least one character, with no embedded equal signs or commas.
79 returns information about the next unprocessed suboption in
81 The first equal sign in a suboption (if any) is interpreted as a
82 separator between the name and the value of that suboption.
83 The value extends to the next comma,
84 or (for the last suboption) to the end of the string.
85 If the name of the suboption matches a known name from
87 and a value string was found,
91 to the address of that string.
94 is overwritten with a null byte, so
96 is precisely the "value string" for that suboption.
98 If the suboption is recognized, but no value string was found,
106 points to the next suboption,
107 or to the null byte (\(aq\e0\(aq) at the end of the
108 string if the last suboption was just processed.
110 If the first suboption in
114 returns the index of the matching suboption element in
116 Otherwise, \-1 is returned and
124 is changed, the first suboption before the call to
126 is not (necessarily) the same as the first suboption after
129 For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see
137 Interface Attribute Value
140 T} Thread safety MT-Safe
146 POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008.
150 overwrites any commas it finds in the string
152 that string must be writable; it cannot be a string constant.
154 The following program expects suboptions following a "\-o" option.
157 #define _XOPEN_SOURCE 500
163 main(int argc, char *argv[])
170 char *const token[] = {
185 while ((opt = getopt(argc, argv, "o:")) != \-1) {
189 while (*subopts != \(aq\e0\(aq && !errfnd) {
191 switch (getsubopt(&subopts, token, &value)) {
202 fprintf(stderr, "Missing value for "
203 "suboption \(aq%s\(aq\en", token[NAME_OPT]);
212 fprintf(stderr, "No match found "
213 "for token: /%s/\en", value);
218 if (readwrite && readonly) {
219 fprintf(stderr, "Only one of \(aq%s\(aq and \(aq%s\(aq can be "
220 "specified\en", token[RO_OPT], token[RW_OPT]);
230 if (errfnd || argc == 1) {
231 fprintf(stderr, "\enUsage: %s \-o <suboptstring>\en", argv[0]);
232 fprintf(stderr, "suboptions are \(aqro\(aq, \(aqrw\(aq, "
233 "and \(aqname=<value>\(aq\en");
237 /* Remainder of program... */