Ahouxr.107 net.unix-wizards utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!ihnss!houxi!houxd!houxc!hound!houti!houca!houxs!houxm!houxr!washdc Mon Jan 11 11:21:00 1982 Re: getopt(3) getopt(3) is a useful tool for C utilities, but a number of commands (e.g. mm) are written in shell -- thus a C program can use -f8by11, (as an argument) , but shell must either use -f 8by11 or use expr or sed to exrtact the value from the argument - sloww & inefficient. Regards, Bill houxt!govern