Getoptr

Getoptr is a name used in some programming contexts to refer to a utility that returns a pointer to the next option parsed from command-line arguments. It is not a standard function in the C library, and its exact form and behavior vary by implementation. In general, getoptr operates within a small stateful parser and yields a pointer to an option structure or entry, or NULL when no more options are available.

Typical usage involve taking the argument list (argc, argv) and an option specification, which can be a string for short options or a table or array for a mix of short and long options. The function advances internal state and returns a pointer to a parsed option object that contains fields such as name, value, and whether the option has an argument. On errors, it may return NULL or set an error code, and it may modify internal variables like optind, optarg, or a similar mechanism depending on the library.

Compared with the standard getopt family, getoptr emphasizes returning a structured pointer rather than populating global variables. This can reduce global state and improve type safety in strongly typed languages, but the approach is not portable across compilers and platforms. Some implementations mirror getopt_long behavior to support long options; others provide only short options.

Example usage (conceptual): for (optr_t *o = getoptr(argc, argv, optspec); o != NULL; o = getoptr(NULL, NULL, NULL)) { process_option(o); }

See also: getopt, getopt_long, optarg, optind.