.\" $NetBSD: getsubopt.3,v 1.16 2018/08/15 10:49:47 martin Exp $ .\" .\" Copyright (c) 1990, 1991, 1993 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software .\" without specific prior written permission. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" @(#)getsubopt.3 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/9/93 .\" .Dd August 15, 2018 .Dt GETSUBOPT 3 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm getsubopt .Nd get sub options from an argument .Sh LIBRARY .Lb libc .Sh SYNOPSIS .In stdlib.h .Vt extern char *suboptarg .Ft int .Fn getsubopt "char **optionp" "char * const *tokens" "char **valuep" .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Fn getsubopt function parses a string containing tokens delimited by one or more tab, space or comma .Pq Ql \&, characters. It is intended for use in parsing groups of option arguments provided as part of a utility command line. .Pp The argument .Fa optionp is a pointer to a pointer to the string. The argument .Fa tokens is a pointer to a .Dv NULL Ns -terminated array of pointers to strings. .Pp The .Fn getsubopt function returns the zero-based offset of the pointer in the .Fa tokens array referencing a string which matches the first token in the string, or \-1 if the string contains no tokens or .Fa tokens does not contain a matching string. .Pp If the token is of the form ``name=value'', the location referenced by .Fa valuep will be set to point to the start of the ``value'' portion of the token. .Pp On return from .Fn getsubopt , .Fa optionp will be set to point to the start of the next token in the string, or the null at the end of the string if no more tokens are present. The external variable .Fa suboptarg will be set to point to the start of the current token, or .Dv NULL if no tokens were present. The argument .Fa valuep will be set to point to the ``value'' portion of the token, or .Dv NULL if no ``value'' portion was present. .Sh EXAMPLES .Bd -literal -compact char *tokens[] = { #define ONE 0 "one", #define TWO 1 "two", NULL }; \&... extern char *optarg, *suboptarg; char *options, *value; while ((ch = getopt(argc, argv, "ab:")) != \-1) { switch(ch) { case 'a': /* process ``a'' option */ break; case 'b': options = optarg; while (*options) { switch(getsubopt(&options, tokens, &value)) { case ONE: /* process ``one'' sub option */ break; case TWO: /* process ``two'' sub option */ if (!value) error("no value for two"); i = atoi(value); break; case \-1: if (suboptarg) error("unknown sub option %s", suboptarg); else error("missing sub option"); break; } break; } .Ed .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr getopt 3 , .Xr strsep 3 .Sh HISTORY The .Fn getsubopt function first appeared in .Bx 4.4 , and is included in .St -p1003.1-2008 .