[SOLVED] How can I use long options with the Bash getopts builtin?

How can I use long options with the Bash getopts builtin?

I am trying to parse a -temp option with Bash getopts. I'm calling my script like this:

./myscript -temp /foo/bar/someFile

Here is the code I'm using to parse the options.

while getopts "temp:shots:o:" option; do
    case $option in
        temp) TMPDIR="$OPTARG" ;;
        shots) NUMSHOTS="$OPTARG" ;;
        o) OUTFILE="$OPTARG" ;;
        *) usage ;;
    esac
done
shift $(($OPTIND - 1))

[ $# -lt 1 ] && usage

Solution

getopts can only parse short options.

Most systems also have an external getopt command, but getopt is not standard, and is generally broken by design as it can't handle all arguments safely (arguments with whitespace and empty arguments), only GNU getopt can handle them safely, but only if you use it in a GNU-specific way.

The easier choice is to use neither, just iterate the script's arguments with a while-loop and do the parsing yourself.

See http://mywiki.wooledge.org/BashFAQ/035 for an example.