Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!smile!alanf
From: alanf%smile@Sun.COM (Alan Fargusson @ peace with the world)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Using getopt to parse multi-argument options
Summary: -x xmin,xmax
Message-ID: <85732@sun.uucp>
Date: 17 Jan 89 21:57:44 GMT
References: <3652@phri.UUCP> <1989Jan16.023712.29002@utzoo.uucp>
Sender: news@sun.uucp
Lines: 18

In article <1989Jan16.023712.29002@utzoo.uucp>, henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes:
> In article <3652@phri.UUCP> roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith) writes:
> >	I'm writing a program which will take an optional range, in the
> >style of graph(1)'s "-x xmin xmax".  How do I tell getopt to parse
> >something like that? ...
> 
> You can't.  The only getopt-compatible way is to require the user to
> say "-x 'xmin xmax'" instead, and have your code pull the single argument
> apart.  This is what the AT&T syntax standard mandates (with the further
> flourish that tabs and commas must work as separators, not just spaces,
> as I recall).
> 

I think the best way to do this would be to have the user type "-x xmin,xmax",
and parse the 'xmin,xmax' yourself.  This is what some AT&T software does.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Alan Fargusson		Sun Microsystems
alanf@sun.com		..!sun!alanf