An example of how to use getopts in bash

Question

I want to call myscript file in this way:

$ ./myscript -s 45 -p any_string

or

$ ./myscript -h  #should display         


        

Answer 1

POSIX 7 example

It is also worth checking the example from the standard: http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/getopts.html

aflag=
bflag=
while getopts ab: name
do
    case $name in
    a)    aflag=1;;
    b)    bflag=1
          bval="$OPTARG";;
    ?)   printf "Usage: %s: [-a] [-b value] args\n" $0
          exit 2;;
    esac
done
if [ ! -z "$aflag" ]; then
    printf "Option -a specified\n"
fi
if [ ! -z "$bflag" ]; then
    printf 'Option -b "%s" specified\n' "$bval"
fi
shift $(($OPTIND - 1))
printf "Remaining arguments are: %s\n" "$*"

And then we can try it out:

$ sh a.sh
Remaining arguments are: 
$ sh a.sh -a
Option -a specified
Remaining arguments are: 
$ sh a.sh -b
No arg for -b option
Usage: a.sh: [-a] [-b value] args
$ sh a.sh -b myval
Option -b "myval" specified
Remaining arguments are: 
$ sh a.sh -a -b myval
Option -a specified
Option -b "myval" specified
Remaining arguments are: 
$ sh a.sh remain
Remaining arguments are: remain
$ sh a.sh -- -a remain
Remaining arguments are: -a remain

Tested in Ubuntu 17.10, sh is dash 0.5.8.