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Last update: 1997-05-20
9945-2-139 _____________________________________________________________________________ Topic: getopts Relevant Sections: 4.27.2 Defect Report: ----------------------- From: andrew@novell.co.uk (Andrew Josey) Date: Thu, 17 Aug 1995 15:38:41 +0100 Attached is a request for interpretation of ISO/IEC 9945-2:1993. The standard specifies (section 4.27.2, p291, lines 4658-4662) "when the end of options is encountered, the getopts utility shall exit with a return value greater than zero; the shell variable OPTIND shall be set to the index of the first nonoption- argument, where the first -- argument is considered to be an option-argument if there are no other nonoption-arguments appearing before it, or the value $#+1 if there are no nonoption- arguments..." This has raised two problems when conformance testing; (i) The standard does not specify whether an argument that resembles an option but is not listed as an option to getopts should be classified as an option or not. (ii) The text quoted above appears to conflict with lines 4631-4633: "each time it is invoked, the getopts utility shall place the value of the next option in the shell variable specified by the name operand and the index of the next argument to be processed in the shell variable OPTIND". Based on the above what should be the value for OPTIND for the arguments "-a -b -c x y z" if only "-a" and "-b" are specified as valid options to getopts? Some conformance tests tests assume OPTIND should point to "x", but it seems equally reasonable to expect it to point to "-c". thanks you for your attention in this matter. Interpretation response ------------------------ The standard does not speak to this issue, and as such no conformance distinction can be made between alternative implementations based on this. This is being referred to the sponsor. Rationale ------------- None. Forwarded to Interpretations group: Aug 29 1995 Recirculated for 30 day review: Oct 23 1995 Finalised: Nov 29 1995