Specify command line arguments like name=value pairs for shell script

Question

Is it possible to pass command line arguments to shell script as name value pairs, something like

myscript action=build module=core

and th

Answer 1

It's quite an old question, but still valid I have not found the cookie cut solution. I combined the above answers. For my needs I created this solution; this works even with white space in the argument's value.

Save this as argparse.sh

#!/bin/bash

: ${1?
  'Usage:
  $0 --=" " [ --=" " | --="" ]'
}

declare -A args
while [[ "$#" > "0" ]]; do
  case "$1" in 
    (*=*)
        _key="${1%%=*}" &&  _key="${_key/--/}" && _val="${1#*=}"
        args[${_key}]="${_val}"
        (>&2 echo -e "key:val => ${_key}:${_val}")
        ;;
  esac
  shift
done
(>&2 echo -e "Total args: ${#args[@]}; Options: ${args[@]}")

## This additional can check for specific key
[[ -n "${args['path']+1}" ]] && (>&2 echo -e "key: 'path' exists") || (>&2 echo -e "key: 'path' does NOT exists");

@Example: Note, arguments to the script can have optional prefix --

./argparse.sh --x="blah"
./argparse.sh --x="blah" --yy="qwert bye"
./argparse.sh x="blah" yy="qwert bye"

Some interesting use cases for this script:

./argparse.sh --path="$(ls -1)"
./argparse.sh --path="$(ls -d -1 "$PWD"/**)"

Above script created as gist, Refer: argparse.sh