System.Console.GetOpt

This library provides facilities for parsing the command-line options in a standalone program. It is essentially a Haskell port of the GNU getopt library.

GetOpt

getOpt :: ArgOrder a -> [OptDescr a] -> [String] -> ([a], [String], [String])

Process the command-line, and return the list of values that matched (and those that didn't). The arguments are:

• The order requirements (see ArgOrder)
• The option descriptions (see OptDescr)
• The actual command line arguments (presumably got from getArgs).

getOpt returns a triple consisting of the option arguments, a list of non-options, and a list of error messages.

getOpt' :: ArgOrder a -> [OptDescr a] -> [String] -> ([a], [String], [String], [String])

This is almost the same as getOpt, but returns a quadruple consisting of the option arguments, a list of non-options, a list of unrecognized options, and a list of error messages.

usageInfo :: String -> [OptDescr a] -> String

Return a string describing the usage of a command, derived from the header (first argument) and the options described by the second argument.

data ArgOrder a

What to do with options following non-options

Constructors

RequireOrder

no option processing after first non-option

Permute

freely intersperse options and non-options

ReturnInOrder (String -> a)

wrap non-options into options

Instances

Functor ArgOrder

Since: 4.6.0.0

Defined in System.Console.GetOpt

Methods

fmap :: (a -> b) -> ArgOrder a -> ArgOrder b

(<$) :: a -> ArgOrder b -> ArgOrder a

data OptDescr a

Each OptDescr describes a single option.

The arguments to Option are:

• list of short option characters
• list of long option strings (without "--")
• argument descriptor
• explanation of option for user

Constructors

Option [Char] [String] (ArgDescr a) String

Instances

Functor OptDescr

Since: 4.6.0.0

Defined in System.Console.GetOpt

Methods

fmap :: (a -> b) -> OptDescr a -> OptDescr b

(<$) :: a -> OptDescr b -> OptDescr a

data ArgDescr a

Describes whether an option takes an argument or not, and if so how the argument is injected into a value of type a.

Constructors

NoArg a

no argument expected

ReqArg (String -> a) String

option requires argument

OptArg (Maybe String -> a) String

optional argument

Instances

Functor ArgDescr

Since: 4.6.0.0

Defined in System.Console.GetOpt

Methods

fmap :: (a -> b) -> ArgDescr a -> ArgDescr b

(<$) :: a -> ArgDescr b -> ArgDescr a

Examples

To hopefully illuminate the role of the different data structures, here are the command-line options for a (very simple) compiler, done in two different ways. The difference arises because the type of getOpt is parameterized by the type of values derived from flags.

Interpreting flags as concrete values

A simple choice for the type associated with flags is to define a type Flag as an algebraic type representing the possible flags and their arguments:

   module Opts1 where
   
   import System.Console.GetOpt
   import Data.Maybe ( fromMaybe )
   
   data Flag 
    = Verbose  | Version 
    | Input String | Output String | LibDir String
      deriving Show
   
   options :: [OptDescr Flag]
   options =
    [ Option ['v']     ["verbose"] (NoArg Verbose)       "chatty output on stderr"
    , Option ['V','?'] ["version"] (NoArg Version)       "show version number"
    , Option ['o']     ["output"]  (OptArg outp "FILE")  "output FILE"
    , Option ['c']     []          (OptArg inp  "FILE")  "input FILE"
    , Option ['L']     ["libdir"]  (ReqArg LibDir "DIR") "library directory"
    ]
   
   inp,outp :: Maybe String -> Flag
   outp = Output . fromMaybe "stdout"
   inp  = Input  . fromMaybe "stdin"
   
   compilerOpts :: [String] -> IO ([Flag], [String])
   compilerOpts argv = 
      case getOpt Permute options argv of
         (o,n,[]  ) -> return (o,n)
         (_,_,errs) -> ioError (userError (concat errs ++ usageInfo header options))
     where header = "Usage: ic [OPTION...] files..."

Then the rest of the program will use the constructed list of flags to determine it's behaviour.

Interpreting flags as transformations of an options record

A different approach is to group the option values in a record of type Options, and have each flag yield a function of type Options -> Options transforming this record.

   module Opts2 where

   import System.Console.GetOpt
   import Data.Maybe ( fromMaybe )

   data Options = Options
    { optVerbose     :: Bool
    , optShowVersion :: Bool
    , optOutput      :: Maybe FilePath
    , optInput       :: Maybe FilePath
    , optLibDirs     :: [FilePath]
    } deriving Show

   defaultOptions    = Options
    { optVerbose     = False
    , optShowVersion = False
    , optOutput      = Nothing
    , optInput       = Nothing
    , optLibDirs     = []
    }

   options :: [OptDescr (Options -> Options)]
   options =
    [ Option ['v']     ["verbose"]
        (NoArg (\ opts -> opts { optVerbose = True }))
        "chatty output on stderr"
    , Option ['V','?'] ["version"]
        (NoArg (\ opts -> opts { optShowVersion = True }))
        "show version number"
    , Option ['o']     ["output"]
        (OptArg ((\ f opts -> opts { optOutput = Just f }) . fromMaybe "output")
                "FILE")
        "output FILE"
    , Option ['c']     []
        (OptArg ((\ f opts -> opts { optInput = Just f }) . fromMaybe "input")
                "FILE")
        "input FILE"
    , Option ['L']     ["libdir"]
        (ReqArg (\ d opts -> opts { optLibDirs = optLibDirs opts ++ [d] }) "DIR")
        "library directory"
    ]

   compilerOpts :: [String] -> IO (Options, [String])
   compilerOpts argv =
      case getOpt Permute options argv of
         (o,n,[]  ) -> return (foldl (flip id) defaultOptions o, n)
         (_,_,errs) -> ioError (userError (concat errs ++ usageInfo header options))
     where header = "Usage: ic [OPTION...] files..."

Similarly, each flag could yield a monadic function transforming a record, of type Options -> IO Options (or any other monad), allowing option processing to perform actions of the chosen monad, e.g. printing help or version messages, checking that file arguments exist, etc.