Subject: Getopt::Long version 2.3beta2 available on CPAN
From: [email-masked] (Johan Vromans)
Date: 17 Mar 1996 23:38:47 +0100
Newsgroups: comp.lang.perl.announce

[The previous posting was wrong, the correct version is 2.3b2, not 2.3b1]

Version 2.3beta2 of module Getopt::Long is now available via CPAN. It
should soon appear in directory authors/Johan_Vromans as file
GetoptLong-2.3b2.tar.gz.

Module Getopt::Long implements an extended getopt function called
GetOptions(). This function implements the POSIX standard for command
line options, with GNU extensions, while still capable of handling
the traditional one-letter options.

The kit contains:

  README         -- Introductionary text
  GetoptLong.pm  -- version 2.3b2 of Getopt::Long (subroutine GetOptions)
  newgetopt.pl   -- version 1.15 of newgetopt.pl (subroutine NGetOpt)
  Makefile.PL    -- Makefile for installation
  skel.pl        -- Skeleton program to use Getopt::Long

The README document is attached to this message.

The best way to download from CPAN is to use a Web browser and point
it to http://www.perl.com/CPAN. It will automagically be redirected to
a CPAN site in your neighborhood.
URL: http://www.perl.com/CPAN/authors/Johan_Vromans

New features in this version
----------------------------

* Support for single-letter command line options and bundling of these
  options.

---- README ----

Module Getopt::Long - extended processing of command line options
=================================================================

Module Getopt::Long implements an extended getopt function called
GetOptions(). This function implements the POSIX standard for command
line options, with GNU extensions, while still capable of handling
the traditional one-letter options.
In general, this means that command line options can have long names
instead of single letters, and are introduced with a double dash `--'.

Optionally, Getopt::Long can support the traditional bundling of
single-letter command line options.

Getopt::Long::GetOptions() comes with the Perl 5 distribution. It is
the successor of newgetopt.pl that came with Perl 4. It is fully
upward compatible. In fact, the Perl 5 version of newgetopt.pl is just
a wrapper around the module.

* Long option names

Major advantage of using long option names is that it is much easier
to memorize the option names. Using single-letter names one quickly
runs into the problem that there is no logical relationship between
the semantics of the selected option and its option letter.
Disadvantage is that it requires more typing. Getopt::Long provides
for option name abbreviation, so option names may be abbreviated to
uniqueness. Also, modern shells like Cornell's tcsh support option
name completion. As a rule of thumb, you can use abbreviations freely
while running commands interactively but always use the full names in
scripts. 

Examples (POSIX):

    --long --width=80 --height=24

Extensions:

    -long (convenience) +width=80 (deprecated) -height 24 (traditional)

By default, long option names are case insensitive.

* Single-letter options and bundling

When single-letter options are requested, Getopt::Long allows the
option names to be bundled, e.g. "-abc" is equivalent to "-a -b -c".
In this case, long option names must be introduced with the POSIX "--"
introducer.

Examples:

    -lgAd (bundle) -xw 80 (bundle, w takes a value) -xw80 (same)

By default, single-letter option names are case sensitive.

* Flexibility:

  - options can have alternative names, using an alternative name
    will behave as if the primary name was used;
  - options can be negatable, e.g. "debug" will switch it on, while
    "nodebug" will switch it off.    
  - options can set values, but also add values producing an array
    of values instead of a single scalar value.

* Options linkage

Using Getopt::Long gives the programmer ultimate control over the
command line options and how they must be handled:

  - by setting a global variable in the calling program;
  - by setting a specified variable;
  - by entering the option name and the value in an associative array
    (hash);
  - by calling a user-specified subroutine with the option name and
    the value as arguments;
  - combinations of the above.

* Customization:

A couple of configuration variables can be used to activate (or
de-activate) specific behavior:

  - $Getopt::Long::autoabbrev      

	Allow option names to be abbreviated to uniqueness. 
	Default is 1 unless environment variable POSIXLY_CORRECT
	has been set.

  - $Getopt::Long::getopt_compat   

	Allow '+' to start options.
	Default is 1 unless environment variable POSIXLY_CORRECT
	has been set.

  - $Getopt::Long::order           

	Whether non-options are allowed to be mixed with options.
	Default is $REQUIRE_ORDER if environment variable
	POSIXLY_CORRECT has been set, $PERMUTE otherwise.

	$PERMUTE means that 

	    -foo arg1 -bar arg2 arg3

	is equivalent to

	    -foo -bar arg1 arg2 arg3

	(provided -foo does not take an argument value).

	If $Getopt::Long::order is $REQUIRE_ORDER, options processing
	terminates when the first non-option is encountered.

	    -foo arg1 -bar arg2 arg3

	is equivalent to

	    -foo -- arg1 -bar arg2 arg3

  - $Getopt::Long::bundling

	Setting this variable to a non-zero value will allow 
	single-character options to be bundled. To distinguish bundles
	from long option names, long options must be introduced with 
	"--" and single-character options (and bundles) with "-".

  - $Getopt::Long::ignorecase      

	Ignore case when matching options. Default is 1. When bundling
	is in effect, case is ignored on single-character options only
	if $Getopt::Long::ignorecase is greater than 1.

  - $Getopt::Long::error

	Internal error flag. May be incremented from a call-back
	routine to cause options parsing to fail.

  - $Getopt::Long::debug           

	Enable copious debugging output. Default is 0.

* Availability

The official version for module Getopt::Long comes with the Perl 5
distribution. 
Newer versions will be made available on the Comprehensive Perl Archive
Network (CPAN), see "http://www.perl.com/CPAN/authors/Johan_Vromans".

* Copyright and disclaimer

Module Getopt::Long is Copyright 1990,1996 by Johan Vromans.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Johan Vromans                                  [email-masked]
Squirrel Consultancy                       Boskoop, the Netherlands
http://www.xs4all.nl/~jvromans        http://www.xxlink.nl/squirrel
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Johan Vromans                                             [email-masked]
Squirrel Design & Consultancy                         Boskoop, the Netherlands
http://www.xs4all.nl/~jvromans                   http://www.xxlink.nl/squirrel
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