Retrieving multiple arguments for a single option using getopts in Bash

Question

I need help with getopts.

I created a Bash script which looks like this when run:

$ foo.sh -i env -d directory -s subdirectory -f file

It works correctly when handling one argument from each flag. But when I invoke several arguments from each flag I am not sure how to pull the multiple variable information out of the variables in getopts.

while getopts ":i:d:s:f:" opt
   do
     case $opt in
        i ) initial=$OPTARG;;
        d ) dir=$OPTARG;;
        s ) sub=$OPTARG;;
        f ) files=$OPTARG;;

     esac
done

After grabbing the options I then want to build directory structures from the variables

foo.sh -i test -d directory -s subdirectory -s subdirectory2 -f file1 file2 file3

Then the directory structure would be

/test/directory/subdirectory/file1
/test/directory/subdirectory/file2
/test/directory/subdirectory/file3
/test/directory/subdirectory2/file1
/test/directory/subdirectory2/file2
/test/directory/subdirectory2/file3

Any ideas?

Answer 1

You can use the same option multiple times and add all values to an array.

For the very specific original question here, Ryan's mkdir -p solution is obviously the best.

However, for the more general question of getting multiple values from the same option with getopts, here it is:

#!/bin/bash

while getopts "m:" opt; do
    case $opt in
        m) multi+=("$OPTARG");;
        #...
    esac
done
shift $((OPTIND -1))

echo "The first value of the array 'multi' is '$multi'"
echo "The whole list of values is '${multi[@]}'"

echo "Or:"

for val in "${multi[@]}"; do
    echo " - $val"
done

The output would be:

$ /tmp/t
The first value of the array 'multi' is ''
The whole list of values is ''
Or:

$ /tmp/t -m "one arg with spaces"
The first value of the array 'multi' is 'one arg with spaces'
The whole list of values is 'one arg with spaces'
Or:
 - one arg with spaces

$ /tmp/t -m one -m "second argument" -m three
The first value of the array 'multi' is 'one'
The whole list of values is 'one second argument three'
Or:
 - one
 - second argument
 - three