Mailing-List: contact cygwin-help AT cygwin DOT com; run by ezmlm
List-Subscribe: <mailto:cygwin-subscribe AT cygwin DOT com>
List-Archive: <http://sources.redhat.com/ml/cygwin/>
List-Post: <mailto:cygwin AT cygwin DOT com>
List-Help: <mailto:cygwin-help AT cygwin DOT com>, <http://sources.redhat.com/ml/#faqs>
Sender: cygwin-owner AT cygwin DOT com
Mail-Followup-To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Delivered-To: mailing list cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 11:31:41 -0700
From: Dario Alcocer <alcocer AT helixdigital DOT com>
To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Subject: Re: ash missing 'getopts' builtin
Message-ID: <20030519113141.A11077@ns.helixdigital.com>
References: <20030519081134 DOT B19452 AT ns DOT helixdigital DOT com> <20030519152016 DOT GA29656 AT cygbert DOT vinschen DOT de> <20030519085741 DOT C19452 AT ns DOT helixdigital DOT com> <20030519164628 DOT GL19367 AT cygbert DOT vinschen DOT de>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Disposition: inline
User-Agent: Mutt/1.2.5.1i
In-Reply-To: <20030519164628.GL19367@cygbert.vinschen.de>; from corinna-cygwin@cygwin.com on Mon, May 19, 2003 at 06:46:28PM +0200

On Mon, May 19, 2003 at 06:46:28PM +0200, Corinna Vinschen wrote:
> On Mon, May 19, 2003 at 08:57:41AM -0700, Dario Alcocer wrote:
> > In fact, I'd say that getopts is almost necessary for scripting,
> > because its inclusion allows scripts to be on an equal footing with
> > compiled programs, in that both can accept command line options. This
> > means I can write small programs as shell scripts instead of as a
> > compiled program; this is entirely consistent with traditional Unix
> > programming philosophy, which encourages the use of shell scripts for
> > small programs.
> 
> There is that problem left that getopts isn't quite "plain old sh".
> It's a System V extension while earlier version only had getopt
> (which is available as external command).

Excellent point. Upon further reflection, I see that my so-called Bourne
shell 'compatible' scripts aren't really. I should be using the external
getopt with the 'set -- `getopt`' idiom instead. I didn't realize I was
relying on a non-standard feature.

Thanks for your time. I ended up learning something new about shell
programming.

-- 
Dario Alcocer -- Sr. Software Developer, Helix Digital Inc.
alcocer AT helixdigital DOT com -- http://www.helixdigital.com

--
Unsubscribe info:      http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple
Problem reports:       http://cygwin.com/problems.html
Documentation:         http://cygwin.com/docs.html
FAQ:                   http://cygwin.com/faq/