Ever want to test command line arguments in bash, mixing arguments and execution options? I have. Here’s one way to do it:

#!/bin/sh

filelist=

until [ -z "$1" ]; do
	# use a case statement to test vars. we always test
	# test $1 and shift at the end of the for block.
	case $1 in
		--home|-h )
			# shift, so the string after --home becomes
			# our new $1. then save the value.
			shift
			USERHOME=$1
		;;
		--force|-f )
			# set to 1 for later testing
			FORCE=1
		;;
		-- )
			# set all the following arguments as files
			shift
			filelist="$filelist $@"
			break
		;;
		-* )
			echo "Unrecognized option: $1"
			exit 1
		;;
		* )
			filelist="$filelist $1"
		;;
	esac

	shift

	if [ "$#" = "0" ]; then
		break
	fi
done

echo -n "Files:"

for f in $filelist ; do
	echo -e "\t$f"
done

echo "User home:" $USERHOME
echo "Forcing?" $FORCE

Here’s some sample output:

adam@aziz:~/prog/argstest$ sh argstest.sh foo1 --home /home/adam foo2 -- --force foo3
Files:	foo1
	foo2
	--force
	foo3
User home: /home/adam
Not forcing.

As you can see, it works with long and short options, options that take values, and the “terminate option list” operator. All it needs is a man page.