what is the best method for reading in arguments?
 

what is the best method for reading in arguments? How do you guys usually do it?

For example if I had stuff like -r 432 -t -i 5435 etc.

Are you using Bash?

yes. i'm using bash.

I want to read in multiple arguments of unknown length.

I found one way that uses a loop with the argument count $#, then uses a case statement to evaluate $1, and then shifts the arguments over to look at the next one.

I was just wondering if there were other methods.

You should look up GETOPTS in the advanced bash scripting guide.

Thanks, this is exactly what I was looking for.

getopts isn't very powerful. Take a look at how prefix (specifically sections 2 through 4) parses arguments. If you want another example, look at fsize.

Note this system is imperfect. Most notibly it doesn't yet support non-option arguments that start with a hyphen. I'll get to this when I have time (a lot of stuff builds up to read after being away over a three day weekend...).

I should make a shell based off Bash that incorporates this system in a builtin...

Okay, I've updated fszie to handle files that start with a hyphen (you have to put -- first to tell it to stop parsing options).