Using getopts to process long and short command line options

Question

I wish to have long and short forms of command line options invoked using my shell script.

I know that getopts can be used, but like in Perl, I have not

Answer 1

In case you don't want the getopt dependency, you can do this:

while test $# -gt 0
do
  case $1 in

  # Normal option processing
    -h | --help)
      # usage and help
      ;;
    -v | --version)
      # version info
      ;;
  # ...

  # Special cases
    --)
      break
      ;;
    --*)
      # error unknown (long) option $1
      ;;
    -?)
      # error unknown (short) option $1
      ;;

  # FUN STUFF HERE:
  # Split apart combined short options
    -*)
      split=$1
      shift
      set -- $(echo "$split" | cut -c 2- | sed 's/./-& /g') "$@"
      continue
      ;;

  # Done with options
    *)
      break
      ;;
  esac

  # for testing purposes:
  echo "$1"

  shift
done

Of course, then you can't use long style options with one dash. And if you want to add shortened versions (e.g. --verbos instead of --verbose), then you need to add those manually.

But if you are looking to get getopts functionality along with long options, this is a simple way to do it.

I also put this snippet in a gist.