How to handle shell getopts with parameter containing blank spaces

shell getopts
DrFalk3n picture DrFalk3n · May 16, 2011 · Viewed 23.1k times · Source

I'm looking for a way to handle arguments containing blank spaces that has to be parsed by shell getopts command.

while getopts ":a:i:o:e:v:u:" arg
  do
  echo "ARG is: $arg" >> /tmp/submit.log
  case "$arg" in
  a) arg1="$OPTARG" ;;
  i) arg2="$OPTARG" ;;
  o) arg3="$OPTARG" ;;
  ...
  u) argn="$OPTARG" ;;
  -) break ;;
  \?) ;;
  *) echo "unhandled option $arg" >> /tmp/submit.log ;;
  ?) echo $usage_string
     exit 1 ;;
  esac
done

Now if -u has argument like "STRING WITH WHITE SPACE" than just the first part of the string is triggered and the while loop doesn't go to the end.

many thanks.

Answer

ErichBSchulz picture ErichBSchulz · Nov 20, 2011

a trap for young players (ie me!)

beware a line like this:

main $@

what you really need is:

main "$@"

otherwise getopts will mince up your options into little pieces

http://www.unix.com/shell-programming-scripting/70630-getopts-list-argument.html

Related questions

An example of how to use getopts in bash

I want to call myscript file in this way: $ ./myscript -s 45 -p any_string or $ ./myscript -h #should display help $ ./myscript #should display help My requirements are: getopt here to get the input arguments check that -s exists, if not …

Read More
Add usage content in shell script without getopts

I have script where i need to display usage command in case user miss any mandatory information while executing script. Usage : Script -s <server> -i <instance> -u <user> -p <password> <query&…

Read More
how to use getopt(s) as technique for passing in argument in bash

Can someone show me an example how to use getopts properly or any other technique that I would be able to pass in an argument? I am trying to write this in unix shell/bash. I am seeing there is …

Read More