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Ramesh Kumar
Asked: 2015-03-24 02:35:19 +0800 CST

Can I get an array as an option argument in bash script

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I am writing a shell script and wants to pass multiple options in an argument. Is it possible to do that like using getopts?

Requirement example:

./shell.sh -d db1 db2

should pass the values db1 and db2 as the values of the -d option.

bash

2 Answers

  1. You can use one option multiple times and collect results in the array:

    ./shell.sh -d db1 -d db2

    Code: 

    while getopts "d:" opt
do
  case ${opt} in
    d) dbs+=("$OPTARG");;
  esac
done
    • 4

  2. No. But you pass a single argument joined with, for example, a colon; or quoted

    ./shell.sh -d db1:db2 
./shell.sh -d "db1 db2"

    In the first case:

    while getopts d: opt; do
    case $opt in
        d) IFS=: read -a dbs <<< "$OPTARG" ;;
    esac
done

    In the 2nd case (quoted)

            d) set -f          # turn off filename expansion
           dbs=($OPTARG)   # variable is unquoted
           set +f;;        # turn it back on
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