getoptlike

getoptlike is a term used to describe libraries and interfaces that provide command-line option parsing modeled after the traditional getopt approach. It is not a single standardized specification, but a design pattern found in many programming environments to parse short and long options, handle argument requirements, and produce a structured result for downstream code.

Key features

- Support for short options (-f) and long options (--file).

- Argument handling for options: no argument, required argument, or optional argument.

- Basic type support and validation for option values.

- Automatic generation of help and usage text based on the declared options.

- Error handling and clear reporting for unknown options, missing arguments, or invalid values.

- Default values and the possibility of environment-variable overrides.

- Handling of positional arguments and option aliases.

- Considerations for thread-safety and reentrancy in some implementations.

Usage model

Typical workflows involve defining a specification of acceptable options, including names, whether they take arguments, and help text. The parsing routine is then invoked with the command-line arguments, returning a structured result that maps options to their values and provides any remaining non-option arguments. On errors, implementations usually provide a usage message and a non-zero exit status.

Variants and interoperability

getoptlike implementations vary across languages and ecosystems. Some adopt declarative schemas, others use builder patterns or decorators. Interoperability is commonly achieved by mapping the parsed results to standard data structures used by the host language. In practice, getoptlike serves as a bridge between user-facing command lines and program logic, offering predictable parsing behavior without enforcing a single canonical API.

See also

getopt, argparse, optparse, getopts