How to get arguments with flags in Bash

Question

I know that I can easily get positioned parameters like this in bash:

$0 or $1

I want to be able to use flag options like this to specify for what each parameter is used:

mysql -u user -h host

What is the best way to get -u param value and -h param value by flag instead of by position?

Answer 1

This example uses Bash's built-in getopts command and is from the Google Shell Style Guide:

a_flag=''
b_flag=''
files=''
verbose='false'

print_usage() {
  printf "Usage: ..."
}

while getopts 'abf:v' flag; do
  case "${flag}" in
    a) a_flag='true' ;;
    b) b_flag='true' ;;
    f) files="${OPTARG}" ;;
    v) verbose='true' ;;
    *) print_usage
       exit 1 ;;
  esac
done

Note: If a character is followed by a colon (e.g. f:), that option is expected to have an argument.

Example usage: ./script -v -a -b -f filename

Using getopts has several advantages over the accepted answer:

• the while condition is a lot more readable and shows what the accepted options are
• cleaner code; no counting the number of parameters and shifting
• you can join options (e.g. -a -b -c → -abc)

However, a big disadvantage is that it doesn't support long options, only single-character options.

Answer 2

This is the idiom I usually use:

while test $# -gt 0; do
  case "$1" in
    -h|--help)
      echo "$package - attempt to capture frames"
      echo " "
      echo "$package [options] application [arguments]"
      echo " "
      echo "options:"
      echo "-h, --help                show brief help"
      echo "-a, --action=ACTION       specify an action to use"
      echo "-o, --output-dir=DIR      specify a directory to store output in"
      exit 0
      ;;
    -a)
      shift
      if test $# -gt 0; then
        export PROCESS=$1
      else
        echo "no process specified"
        exit 1
      fi
      shift
      ;;
    --action*)
      export PROCESS=`echo $1 | sed -e 's/^[^=]*=//g'`
      shift
      ;;
    -o)
      shift
      if test $# -gt 0; then
        export OUTPUT=$1
      else
        echo "no output dir specified"
        exit 1
      fi
      shift
      ;;
    --output-dir*)
      export OUTPUT=`echo $1 | sed -e 's/^[^=]*=//g'`
      shift
      ;;
    *)
      break
      ;;
  esac
done

Key points are:

• $# is the number of arguments
• while loop looks at all the arguments supplied, matching on their values inside a case statement
• shift takes the first one away. You can shift multiple times inside of a case statement to take multiple values.

Answer 3

getopt is your friend.. a simple example:

function f () {
TEMP=`getopt --long -o "u:h:" "$@"`
eval set -- "$TEMP"
while true ; do
    case "$1" in
        -u )
            user=$2
            shift 2
        ;;
        -h )
            host=$2
            shift 2
        ;;
        *)
            break
        ;;
    esac 
done;

echo "user = $user, host = $host"
}

f -u myself -h some_host

There should be various examples in your /usr/bin directory.

Answer 4

I propose a simple TLDR:; example for the un-initiated.

Create a bash script called greeter.sh

#!/bin/bash

while getopts "n:" arg; do
  case $arg in
    n) Name=$OPTARG;;
  esac
done

echo "Hello $Name!"

You can then pass an optional parameter -n when executing the script.

Execute the script as such:

$ bash greeter.sh -n 'Bob'

Output

$ Hello Bob!

Notes

If you'd like to use multiple parameters:

1. extend while getops "n:" arg: do with more paramaters such as while getops "n:o:p:" arg: do
2. extend the case switch with extra variable assignments. Such as o) Option=$OPTARG and p) Parameter=$OPTARG

To make the script executable:

chmod u+x greeter.sh

Answer 5

I think this would serve as a simpler example of what you want to achieve. There is no need to use external tools. Bash built in tools can do the job for you.

function DOSOMETHING {

   while test $# -gt 0; do
           case "$1" in
                -first)
                    shift
                    first_argument=$1
                    shift
                    ;;
                -last)
                    shift
                    last_argument=$1
                    shift
                    ;;
                *)
                   echo "$1 is not a recognized flag!"
                   return 1;
                   ;;
          esac
  done  

  echo "First argument : $first_argument";
  echo "Last argument : $last_argument";
 }

This will allow you to use flags so no matter which order you are passing the parameters you will get the proper behavior.

Example :

 DOSOMETHING -last "Adios" -first "Hola"

Output :

 First argument : Hola
 Last argument : Adios

You can add this function to your profile or put it inside of a script.

Thanks!

Edit : Save this as a a file and then execute it as yourfile.sh -last "Adios" -first "Hola"

#!/bin/bash
while test $# -gt 0; do
           case "$1" in
                -first)
                    shift
                    first_argument=$1
                    shift
                    ;;
                -last)
                    shift
                    last_argument=$1
                    shift
                    ;;
                *)
                   echo "$1 is not a recognized flag!"
                   return 1;
                   ;;
          esac
  done  

  echo "First argument : $first_argument";
  echo "Last argument : $last_argument";

Answer 6

Another alternative would be to use something like the below example which would allow you to use long --image or short -i tags and also allow compiled -i="example.jpg" or separate -i example.jpg methods of passing in arguments.

# declaring a couple of associative arrays
declare -A arguments=();  
declare -A variables=();

# declaring an index integer
declare -i index=1;

# any variables you want to use here
# on the left left side is argument label or key (entered at the command line along with it's value) 
# on the right side is the variable name the value of these arguments should be mapped to.
# (the examples above show how these are being passed into this script)
variables["-gu"]="git_user";  
variables["--git-user"]="git_user";  
variables["-gb"]="git_branch";  
variables["--git-branch"]="git_branch";  
variables["-dbr"]="db_fqdn";  
variables["--db-redirect"]="db_fqdn";  
variables["-e"]="environment";  
variables["--environment"]="environment";

# $@ here represents all arguments passed in
for i in "$@"  
do  
  arguments[$index]=$i;
  prev_index="$(expr $index - 1)";

  # this if block does something akin to "where $i contains ="
  # "%=*" here strips out everything from the = to the end of the argument leaving only the label
  if [[ $i == *"="* ]]
    then argument_label=${i%=*} 
    else argument_label=${arguments[$prev_index]}
  fi

  # this if block only evaluates to true if the argument label exists in the variables array
  if [[ -n ${variables[$argument_label]} ]]
    then
        # dynamically creating variables names using declare
        # "#$argument_label=" here strips out the label leaving only the value
        if [[ $i == *"="* ]]
            then declare ${variables[$argument_label]}=${i#$argument_label=} 
            else declare ${variables[$argument_label]}=${arguments[$index]}
        fi
  fi

  index=index+1;
done;

# then you could simply use the variables like so:
echo "$git_user";

Answer 7

I like Robert McMahan's answer the best here as it seems the easiest to make into sharable include files for any of your scripts to use. But it seems to have a flaw with the line if [[ -n ${variables[$argument_label]} ]] throwing the message, "variables: bad array subscript". I don't have the rep to comment, and I doubt this is the proper 'fix,' but wrapping that if in if [[ -n $argument_label ]] ; then cleans it up.

Here's the code I ended up with, if you know a better way please add a comment to Robert's answer.

Include File "flags-declares.sh"

# declaring a couple of associative arrays
declare -A arguments=();
declare -A variables=();

# declaring an index integer
declare -i index=1;

Include File "flags-arguments.sh"

# $@ here represents all arguments passed in
for i in "$@"
do
  arguments[$index]=$i;
  prev_index="$(expr $index - 1)";

  # this if block does something akin to "where $i contains ="
  # "%=*" here strips out everything from the = to the end of the argument leaving only the label
  if [[ $i == *"="* ]]
    then argument_label=${i%=*}
    else argument_label=${arguments[$prev_index]}
  fi

  if [[ -n $argument_label ]] ; then
    # this if block only evaluates to true if the argument label exists in the variables array
    if [[ -n ${variables[$argument_label]} ]] ; then
      # dynamically creating variables names using declare
      # "#$argument_label=" here strips out the label leaving only the value
      if [[ $i == *"="* ]]
        then declare ${variables[$argument_label]}=${i#$argument_label=} 
        else declare ${variables[$argument_label]}=${arguments[$index]}
      fi
    fi
  fi

  index=index+1;
done;

Your "script.sh"

. bin/includes/flags-declares.sh

# any variables you want to use here
# on the left left side is argument label or key (entered at the command line along with it's value) 
# on the right side is the variable name the value of these arguments should be mapped to.
# (the examples above show how these are being passed into this script)
variables["-gu"]="git_user";
variables["--git-user"]="git_user";
variables["-gb"]="git_branch";
variables["--git-branch"]="git_branch";
variables["-dbr"]="db_fqdn";
variables["--db-redirect"]="db_fqdn";
variables["-e"]="environment";
variables["--environment"]="environment";

. bin/includes/flags-arguments.sh

# then you could simply use the variables like so:
echo "$git_user";
echo "$git_branch";
echo "$db_fqdn";
echo "$environment";

Answer 8

#!/bin/bash

if getopts "n:" arg; then
  echo "Welcome $OPTARG"
fi

Save it as sample.sh and try running

sh sample.sh -n John

in your terminal.

Answer 9

If you're familiar with Python argparse, and don't mind calling python to parse bash arguments, there is a piece of code I found really helpful and super easy to use called argparse-bash https://github.com/nhoffman/argparse-bash

Example take from their example.sh script:

#!/bin/bash

source $(dirname $0)/argparse.bash || exit 1
argparse "$@" <<EOF || exit 1
parser.add_argument('infile')
parser.add_argument('outfile')
parser.add_argument('-a', '--the-answer', default=42, type=int,
                    help='Pick a number [default %(default)s]')
parser.add_argument('-d', '--do-the-thing', action='store_true',
                    default=False, help='store a boolean [default %(default)s]')
parser.add_argument('-m', '--multiple', nargs='+',
                    help='multiple values allowed')
EOF

echo required infile: "$INFILE"
echo required outfile: "$OUTFILE"
echo the answer: "$THE_ANSWER"
echo -n do the thing?
if [[ $DO_THE_THING ]]; then
    echo " yes, do it"
else
    echo " no, do not do it"
fi
echo -n "arg with multiple values: "
for a in "${MULTIPLE[@]}"; do
    echo -n "[$a] "
done
echo

Answer 10

I had trouble using getopts with multiple flags, so I wrote this code. It uses a modal variable to detect flags, and to use those flags to assign arguments to variables.

Note that, if a flag shouldn't have an argument, something other than setting CURRENTFLAG can be done.

    for MYFIELD in "$@"; do

        CHECKFIRST=`echo $MYFIELD | cut -c1`

        if [ "$CHECKFIRST" == "-" ]; then
            mode="flag"
        else
            mode="arg"
        fi

        if [ "$mode" == "flag" ]; then
            case $MYFIELD in
                -a)
                    CURRENTFLAG="VARIABLE_A"
                    ;;
                -b)
                    CURRENTFLAG="VARIABLE_B"
                    ;;
                -c)
                    CURRENTFLAG="VARIABLE_C"
                    ;;
            esac
        elif [ "$mode" == "arg" ]; then
            case $CURRENTFLAG in
                VARIABLE_A)
                    VARIABLE_A="$MYFIELD"
                    ;;
                VARIABLE_B)
                    VARIABLE_B="$MYFIELD"
                    ;;
                VARIABLE_C)
                    VARIABLE_C="$MYFIELD"
                    ;;
            esac
        fi
    done

Answer 11

So here it is my solution. I wanted to be able to handle boolean flags without hyphen, with one hyphen, and with two hyphen as well as parameter/value assignment with one and two hyphens.

# Handle multiple types of arguments and prints some variables
#
# Boolean flags
# 1) No hyphen
#    create   Assigns `true` to the variable `CREATE`.
#             Default is `CREATE_DEFAULT`.
#    delete   Assigns true to the variable `DELETE`.
#             Default is `DELETE_DEFAULT`.
# 2) One hyphen
#      a      Assigns `true` to a. Default is `false`.
#      b      Assigns `true` to b. Default is `false`.
# 3) Two hyphens
#    cats     Assigns `true` to `cats`. By default is not set.
#    dogs     Assigns `true` to `cats`. By default is not set.
#
# Parameter - Value
# 1) One hyphen
#      c      Assign any value you want
#      d      Assign any value you want
#
# 2) Two hyphens
#   ... Anything really, whatever two-hyphen argument is given that is not
#       defined as flag, will be defined with the next argument after it.
#
# Example:
# ./parser_example.sh delete -a -c VA_1 --cats --dir /path/to/dir
parser() {
    # Define arguments with one hyphen that are boolean flags
    HYPHEN_FLAGS="a b"
    # Define arguments with two hyphens that are boolean flags
    DHYPHEN_FLAGS="cats dogs"

    # Iterate over all the arguments
    while [ $# -gt 0 ]; do
        # Handle the arguments with no hyphen
        if [[ $1 != "-"* ]]; then
            echo "Argument with no hyphen!"
            echo $1
            # Assign true to argument $1
            declare $1=true
            # Shift arguments by one to the left
            shift
        # Handle the arguments with one hyphen
        elif [[ $1 == "-"[A-Za-z0-9]* ]]; then
            # Handle the flags
            if [[ $HYPHEN_FLAGS == *"${1/-/}"* ]]; then
                echo "Argument with one hyphen flag!"
                echo $1
                # Remove the hyphen from $1
                local param="${1/-/}"
                # Assign true to $param
                declare $param=true
                # Shift by one
                shift
            # Handle the parameter-value cases
            else
                echo "Argument with one hyphen value!"
                echo $1 $2
                # Remove the hyphen from $1
                local param="${1/-/}"
                # Assign argument $2 to $param
                declare $param="$2"
                # Shift by two
                shift 2
            fi
        # Handle the arguments with two hyphens
        elif [[ $1 == "--"[A-Za-z0-9]* ]]; then
            # NOTE: For double hyphen I am using `declare -g $param`.
            #   This is the case because I am assuming that's going to be
            #   the final name of the variable
            echo "Argument with two hypens!"
            # Handle the flags
            if [[ $DHYPHEN_FLAGS == *"${1/--/}"* ]]; then
                echo $1 true
                # Remove the hyphens from $1
                local param="${1/--/}"
                # Assign argument $2 to $param
                declare -g $param=true
                # Shift by two
                shift
            # Handle the parameter-value cases
            else
                echo $1 $2
                # Remove the hyphens from $1
                local param="${1/--/}"
                # Assign argument $2 to $param
                declare -g $param="$2"
                # Shift by two
                shift 2
            fi
        fi

    done
    # Default value for arguments with no hypheb
    CREATE=${create:-'CREATE_DEFAULT'}
    DELETE=${delete:-'DELETE_DEFAULT'}
    # Default value for arguments with one hypen flag
    VAR1=${a:-false}
    VAR2=${b:-false}
    # Default value for arguments with value
    # NOTE1: This is just for illustration in one line. We can well create
    #   another function to handle this. Here I am handling the cases where
    #   we have a full named argument and a contraction of it.
    #   For example `--arg1` can be also set with `-c`.
    # NOTE2: What we are doing here is to check if $arg is defined. If not,
    #   check if $c was defined. If not, assign the default value "VD_"
    VAR3=$(if [[ $arg1 ]]; then echo $arg1; else echo ${c:-"VD_1"}; fi)
    VAR4=$(if [[ $arg2 ]]; then echo $arg2; else echo ${d:-"VD_2"}; fi)
}


# Pass all the arguments given to the script to the parser function
parser "$@"


echo $CREATE $DELETE $VAR1 $VAR2 $VAR3 $VAR4 $cats $dir

Some references

• The main procedure was found here.
• More about passing all the arguments to a function here.
• More info regarding default values here.
• More info about declare do $ bash -c "help declare".
• More info about shift do $ bash -c "help shift".