Shell Scripting: Parsing options using getopt and getopts

This post shows how you can parse shell options using getopts and getopt.

Using getopts:

getopts is a bash built-in command. I find it a lot easier to use than getopt.

Here is an example of using getopts:

# options a and b are followed by a colon because they require arguments
while getopts "ha:b:" opt; do
  case "$opt" in
    h)
      echo "help"
     ;;
    a)
      option_a=$OPTARG
      ;;
    b)
      option_b=$OPTARG
      ;;
  esac
done
shift $((OPTIND-1))

echo "option_a: $option_a"
echo "option_b: $option_b"

# read positional parameters
echo "Param 1: $1"
echo "Param 2: $2"

Running it:

$ myscript.sh -a foo -b bar hello world
option_a: foo
option_b: bar
Param 1: hello
Param 2: world

Using getopt:

getopt supports long options and that's the only time I use it.

Here is an example of using getopt:

options=$(getopt -n "$0" -o ha:b: -l "help,alpha:,bravo:"  -- "$@")
(( $? != 0 )) && echo "Incorrect options provided" >&2 && exit 1
eval set -- "$options"

while true; do
  case "$1" in
    -h|--help)
        echo "help"
        ;;
    -a|--alpha)
        shift
        option_a="$1"
        ;;
    -b|--bravo)
        shift
        option_b="$1"
        ;;
    --)
        shift
        break
        ;;
  esac
  shift
done

echo "option_a: $option_a"
echo "option_b: $option_b"

# read positional parameters
echo "Param 1: $1"
echo "Param 2: $2"

Running it:

$ myscript.sh --alpha foo --bravo bar hello world
option_a: foo
option_b: bar
Param 1: hello
Param 2: world