.\" Copyright (c) 1990 The Regents of the University of California.
.\" %sccs.include.redist.man%
.\" @(#)getsubopt.3 5.2 (Berkeley) %G%
getsubopt \- get sub options from an argument
int getsubopt(char **optionp, char * const *tokens, char **valuep);
parses a string containing tokens delimited by one or more tab, space or
comma (``,'') characters.
It is intended for use in parsing groups of option arguments provided
as part of a utility command line.
is a pointer to a pointer to the string.
is a pointer to a NULL-terminated array of pointers to strings.
returns the zero-based offset of the pointer in the
array referencing a string which matches the first token
in the string, or, -1 if the string contains no tokens or
does not contain a matching string.
If the token is of the form ``name=value'', the location referenced by
will be set to point to the start of the ``value'' portion of the token.
will be set to point to the start of the next token in the string,
or the null at the end of the string if no more tokens are present.
will be set to point to the start of the current token, or NULL if no
will be set to point to the ``value'' portion of the token, or NULL
if no ``value'' portion was present.
extern char *optarg, *suboptarg;
while ((ch = getopt(argc, argv, "ab:")) != -1) {
/* process ``a'' option */
switch(getsubopt(&options, tokens, &value)) {
/* process ``one'' sub option */
/* process ``two'' sub option */
error("no value for two");
error("illegal sub option %s",
error("missing sub option");