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Passing options into a script

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# 1  
Old 05-20-2010
Passing options into a script
Afternoon all,

I have been writing a script to do some selects on a table dependent on what options are selected when the script is run:

Code:
#!/bin/ksh

set -x
set -m

if [ "$1" = "" ]
then
   echo "usage: msglog.ksh -da <date and time> -i <interface> -m <msg> -di <direction> -mi <MIR>"
   exit 1
fi
while getopts "da:i:m:di:s:mi:" opt;do
    case $opt in
         da ) dtandtm="$OPTARG";;
         i ) interface="$OPTARG";;
         m ) msg="$OPTARG";;
         di ) direction="$OPTARG";;
         mi ) MIR="$OPTARG";;
    esac
done

Unfortunately it appears that if you use more than one flag the the second option is just passed to the first variable instead of creating a second.

Output of debug:

./msglogcount.ksh -i XCLR -di O
+ set -m
+ [ -i = ]
+ getopts da:i:m:di:s:mi: opt
+ interface=XCLR
+ getopts da:i:m:di:s:mi: opt
+ getopts da:i:m:di:s:mi: opt
+ interface=O
+ getopts da:i:m:di:s:mi: opt

As you can see instead of direction being set to O, it just overwrites the interface variable.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Chris
# 2  
Old 05-20-2010
Hi.

A quote from the getopts man page:
Quote:
An option begins with a + (plus sign) or a - (minus sign) followed by a character. An option that does not begin with either a + or
a - ends the OptionString.
That's to say that da, dm and mi would be counted as six options, not three.

If you can change your script, i.e.:
Code:
#!/bin/ksh

set -x
set -m

if [ "$1" = "" ]
then
   echo "usage: msglog.ksh -da <date and time> -i <interface> -m <msg> -di <direction> -mi <MIR>"
   exit 1
fi
while getopts "A:i:m:D:s:M:" opt;do
    case $opt in
         A ) dtandtm="$OPTARG";;
         i ) interface="$OPTARG";;
         m ) msg="$OPTARG";;
         D ) direction="$OPTARG";;
         M ) MIR="$OPTARG";;
    esac
done

then call it as
Code:
./msglogcount.ksh -i XCLR -D O

then you should have no problems
# 3  
Old 05-20-2010
That's because getopts uses only single-character options. Anything other than a colon and the question mark are interpreted as a single option character.
# 4  
Old 05-20-2010
Quote:
Originally Posted by chris01010
Code:
getopts "da:i:m:di:s:mi:" opt

You should probably read the man page of "getopts" more thoroughly. Unix options are considered to be 1-character only ("-da" is considered to be equivalent to "-d -a" and "-a -d") and getopts implicitly adheres to this convention.

Therefore the option string "da:i:m:di:s:mi:" means: there is an option "-d", which gets no parameter at all, an option "-a", which expects a parameter, an option "-i", which also expects an parameter, ....

I hope this helps.

bakunin
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