Args

The Args component models the command line arguments with which a program is invoked by a single class ``Args''. The set of allowed options is specified to Args using exactly the same syntax as with getopt(3C). Assume, for example, we wish to accept the above -c, -o, and -O options of the cc command. The code to do this is as follows:

       #include <Args.h>
   

       main(int argc, const char*const* argv) {
           Args args(argc, argv, "co:O");
           // ...
       }

Notice that like getopt(3C), value-taking options are specified with a following `:' in the option string.

Discovering which options were set by the user invoking the program, and their corresponding values, is easy. In the following code, we define a few global variables to store the settings of the command line arguments:

       int compile_only = 0;
       int optimize = 0;
       const char* output_filename = "a.out";
   

       main(int argc, const char*const* argv) {
           Args args(argc, argv, "co:O");
           compile_only = args.isset('c');
           optimize = args.isset('O');
           if (args.isset('o'))
               output_filename = args.value('o');
           // ...
       }

The (non-option) arguments to a program can be processed using an ``arguments iterator''. This is an object which, given an Args object, returns every (non-option) argument in the order they appeared on the command line. Here is the code to retrieve the list of files for cc to compile:

       extern void compile(const char*);
   

       main(int argc, const char*const* argv) {
           Args args(argc, argv, "co:O");
           // ...
           Argsiter ai(args);
           const char* filename;
           while (ai.next(filename))
               compile(filename);
       }

Notice that the arguments are returned through the reference parameter of next(). The return value of next is true as long as there was another argument.