25.3.11.4 A Program Using Multiple Combined Argp Parsers

This program uses the same features as example 3, but has more options, and presents more structure in the ‘--help’ output. It also illustrates how you can `steal' the remainder of the input arguments past a certain point for programs that accept a list of items. It also illustrates the key value ARGP_KEY_NO_ARGS, which is only given if no non-option arguments were supplied to the program. See Argp Special Keys.

For structuring help output, two features are used: headers and a two part option string. The headers are entries in the options vector. See Argp Option Vectors. The first four fields are zero. The two part documentation string are in the variable doc, which allows documentation both before and after the options. See Argp Parsers, the two parts of doc are separated by a vertical-tab character ('\v', or '\013'). By convention, the documentation before the options is a short string stating what the program does, and after any options it is longer, describing the behavior in more detail. All documentation strings are automatically filled for output, although newlines may be included to force a line break at a particular point. In addition, documentation strings are passed to the gettext function, for possible translation into the current locale.

     /* Argp example #4 -- a program with somewhat more complicated options */
     
     /* This program uses the same features as example 3, but has more
        options, and somewhat more structure in the -help output.  It
        also shows how you can `steal' the remainder of the input
        arguments past a certain point, for programs that accept a
        list of items.  It also shows the special argp KEY value
        ARGP_KEY_NO_ARGS, which is only given if no non-option
        arguments were supplied to the program.
     
        For structuring the help output, two features are used,
        *headers* which are entries in the options vector with the
        first four fields being zero, and a two part documentation
        string (in the variable DOC), which allows documentation both
        before and after the options; the two parts of DOC are
        separated by a vertical-tab character ('\v', or '\013').  By
        convention, the documentation before the options is just a
        short string saying what the program does, and that afterwards
        is longer, describing the behavior in more detail.  All
        documentation strings are automatically filled for output,
        although newlines may be included to force a line break at a
        particular point.  All documentation strings are also passed to
        the `gettext' function, for possible translation into the
        current locale. */
     
     #include <stdlib.h>
     #include <error.h>
     #include <argp.h>
     
     const char *argp_program_version =
       "argp-ex4 1.0";
     const char *argp_program_bug_address =
       "<bug-gnu-utils@prep.ai.mit.edu>";
     
     /* Program documentation. */
     static char doc[] =
       "Argp example #4 -- a program with somewhat more complicated\
     options\
     \vThis part of the documentation comes *after* the options;\
      note that the text is automatically filled, but it's possible\
      to force a line-break, e.g.\n<-- here.";
     
     /* A description of the arguments we accept. */
     static char args_doc[] = "ARG1 [STRING...]";
     
     /* Keys for options without short-options. */
     #define OPT_ABORT  1            /* --abort */
     
     /* The options we understand. */
     static struct argp_option options[] = {
       {"verbose",  'v', 0,       0, "Produce verbose output" },
       {"quiet",    'q', 0,       0, "Don't produce any output" },
       {"silent",   's', 0,       OPTION_ALIAS },
       {"output",   'o', "FILE",  0,
        "Output to FILE instead of standard output" },
     
       {0,0,0,0, "The following options should be grouped together:" },
       {"repeat",   'r', "COUNT", OPTION_ARG_OPTIONAL,
        "Repeat the output COUNT (default 10) times"},
       {"abort",    OPT_ABORT, 0, 0, "Abort before showing any output"},
     
       { 0 }
     };
     
     /* Used by main to communicate with parse_opt. */
     struct arguments
     {
       char *arg1;                   /* arg1 */
       char **strings;               /* [string...] */
       int silent, verbose, abort;   /* ‘-s’, ‘-v’, ‘--abort’ */
       char *output_file;            /* file arg to ‘--output’ */
       int repeat_count;             /* count arg to ‘--repeat’ */
     };
     
     /* Parse a single option. */
     static error_t
     parse_opt (int key, char *arg, struct argp_state *state)
     {
       /* Get the input argument from argp_parse, which we
          know is a pointer to our arguments structure. */
       struct arguments *arguments = state->input;
     
       switch (key)
         {
         case 'q': case 's':
           arguments->silent = 1;
           break;
         case 'v':
           arguments->verbose = 1;
           break;
         case 'o':
           arguments->output_file = arg;
           break;
         case 'r':
           arguments->repeat_count = arg ? atoi (arg) : 10;
           break;
         case OPT_ABORT:
           arguments->abort = 1;
           break;
     
         case ARGP_KEY_NO_ARGS:
           argp_usage (state);
     
         case ARGP_KEY_ARG:
           /* Here we know that state->arg_num == 0, since we
              force argument parsing to end before any more arguments can
              get here. */
           arguments->arg1 = arg;
     
           /* Now we consume all the rest of the arguments.
              state->next is the index in state->argv of the
              next argument to be parsed, which is the first string
              we're interested in, so we can just use
              &state->argv[state->next] as the value for
              arguments->strings.
     
              In addition, by setting state->next to the end
              of the arguments, we can force argp to stop parsing here and
              return. */
           arguments->strings = &state->argv[state->next];
           state->next = state->argc;
     
           break;
     
         default:
           return ARGP_ERR_UNKNOWN;
         }
       return 0;
     }
     
     /* Our argp parser. */
     static struct argp argp = { options, parse_opt, args_doc, doc };
     
     int main (int argc, char **argv)
     {
       int i, j;
       struct arguments arguments;
     
       /* Default values. */
       arguments.silent = 0;
       arguments.verbose = 0;
       arguments.output_file = "-";
       arguments.repeat_count = 1;
       arguments.abort = 0;
     
       /* Parse our arguments; every option seen by parse_opt will be
          reflected in arguments. */
       argp_parse (&argp, argc, argv, 0, 0, &arguments);
     
       if (arguments.abort)
         error (10, 0, "ABORTED");
     
       for (i = 0; i < arguments.repeat_count; i++)
         {
           printf ("ARG1 = %s\n", arguments.arg1);
           printf ("STRINGS = ");
           for (j = 0; arguments.strings[j]; j++)
             printf (j == 0 ? "%s" : ", %s", arguments.strings[j]);
           printf ("\n");
           printf ("OUTPUT_FILE = %s\nVERBOSE = %s\nSILENT = %s\n",
                   arguments.output_file,
                   arguments.verbose ? "yes" : "no",
                   arguments.silent ? "yes" : "no");
         }
     
       exit (0);
     }