The first argument to the argp_parse
function is a pointer to a
struct argp
, which is known as an argp parser:
This structure specifies how to parse a given set of options and arguments, perhaps in conjunction with other argp parsers. It has the following fields:
const struct argp_option *options
- A pointer to a vector of
argp_option
structures specifying which options this argp parser understands; it may be zero if there are no options at all. See Argp Option Vectors.argp_parser_t parser
- A pointer to a function that defines actions for this parser; it is called for each option parsed, and at other well-defined points in the parsing process. A value of zero is the same as a pointer to a function that always returns
ARGP_ERR_UNKNOWN
. See Argp Parser Functions.const char *args_doc
- If non-zero, a string describing what non-option arguments are called by this parser. This is only used to print the ‘Usage:’ message. If it contains newlines, the strings separated by them are considered alternative usage patterns and printed on separate lines. Lines after the first are prefixed by ‘ or: ’ instead of ‘Usage:’.
const char *doc
- If non-zero, a string containing extra text to be printed before and after the options in a long help message, with the two sections separated by a vertical tab (
'\v'
,'\013'
) character. By convention, the documentation before the options is just a short string explaining what the program does. Documentation printed after the options describe behavior in more detail.const struct argp_child *children
- A pointer to a vector of
argp_children
structures. This pointer specifies which additional argp parsers should be combined with this one. See Argp Children.char *(*help_filter)(int
key, const char *
text, void *
input)
- If non-zero, a pointer to a function that filters the output of help messages. See Argp Help Filtering.
const char *argp_domain
- If non-zero, the strings used in the argp library are translated using the domain described by this string. If zero, the current default domain is used.
Of the above group, options
, parser
, args_doc
, and
the doc
fields are usually all that are needed. If an argp
parser is defined as an initialized C variable, only the fields used
need be specified in the initializer. The rest will default to zero due
to the way C structure initialization works. This design is exploited in
most argp structures; the most-used fields are grouped near the
beginning, the unused fields left unspecified.