README.md

opt.h

Minimal single-header library to add command line flags to a C program using getopt(3).

Usage

To use, include opt.h in all files that will use this library. In exactly ONE of these files, use #define OPT_H_IMPLEMENTATION to generate the implementation:

#define OPT_H_IMPLEMENTATION
#include "opt.h"

Before starting a new set of options, call OPT_CLEAR() to reset the internal option state.

Then, to add options, use:

OPT_FLAG(option, var_name);
OPT_INT(option, var_name);
OPT_STR(option, var_name);

where:

• option is a character literal representing the flag to use

• var_name is the name of the variable to create and store the flag data into.

For strings, the memory for the variable is allocated with malloc(3) and so the user must use free(3) to free the memory when they are done. An additional variable is created of the form OPT_has_##varname that indicates whether a flag was seen.

After adding options, use OPT_PROCESS(argc, argv) to process options over a given argc and argv. Note that this has the same side effects as getopt on argv.

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Example

This minimal example shows the complete usage of the library:

#include <stdio.h>

#define OPT_H_IMPLEMENTATION
#include "opt.h"

int
main(int argc, char** argv)
{
    OPT_CLEAR();
    OPT_FLAG('v', is_verbose);
    OPT_INT('t', time_to_live);
    OPT_STR('i', input_filename);
    OPT_PROCESS(argc, argv);

    printf("Verbose: %d\n", is_verbose);

    if (OPT_has_time_to_live)
      printf("Time To Live: %d\n", time_to_live);

    if (OPT_has_input_filename) {
        printf("Input Filename: %s\n", input_filename);
        free(input_filename); // free memory malloced by opt.h
    }

    return 0;
}