NAME

Getopt::Tiny - yet another command line argument parsing module

SYNOPSIS

        use Getopt::Tiny;

        my $arg = 'default value';
        my @list;
        my %hash;
        my $flag;
        my %set;

        # begin usage info
        my (%flags) = (
                'argx' => \$arg,        # set a parameter
                'listx' => \@list,      # fill in a list
                'hashx' => \%hash,      # set key/value pairs
        );
        my (%switches) = (
                'flagx' => \$flag,      # on or off
        }
        # end usage info

        getopt(\@ARGV, \%flags, \%switches, $what_comes_after);
        Getopt::Tiny::usage(__FILE__, \%flags, \%switches, 'files');

or

        use Getopt::Tiny;
        %flags = ...
        %switches = ...
        getopt()
        Getopt::Tiny::usage();

DESCRIPTION

Getopt::Tiny is yet another argument parsing module. The results of the argument parsing are stored by using references that were provided to getopt(). Usage information is automatically generated. Getopt::Tiny expects all arguments to be switches -- no trailing list of files.

Getopt::Tiny can either call an existing usage() function or it can use it's own builtin one. It trys to use the existing one by default. If that fails, it will use its own. It figures out how to describe things by reading the file where call to getopt() originated. In the file where getopt is called, the following two lines must appear exactly as written here:

        # begin usage info
        # end usage info

Between these two lines, lines that match the pattern of:

        'someflag' => ...  # a description

will be noticed and used to document each flag individually.

The usage() function of Getopt::Tiny can be called on it's own. It can either have it's arguments given to it explicitly or it can default them like getopt().

If a usage function is provided, it will be called with one parameter: the argument that didn't parse.

Getopt::Tiny can be used in situation where it is expected to parse the entire command line and in situations where there will be command line args left over. When Getopt::Tiny is expected to parse the whole command line, do not include a forth argument to getopt(). When it is expected that there will be stuff left over, pass a description of what should be left over as the forth argument to getopt().

ARGUMENT TYPES

There are four types of arguments that Getopt::Tiny supports.

switches

Switches are either on or off. In the example in the synopsis, the variable $flag will be respectively set to 1 or 0 if -flagx or -noflagx appears in the argument list .

parameter

Parameters have values. In the example above, the $arg variable will be set to whatever follows -argx in the argument list.

list

List flags can have multiple values. If present, they will have at least one value. In the example above, if the argument list containted qw(-listx a b c -listx -d e -argx foo), the array @list would end up with a value of qw(a b c -d e).

hash

Hashes have multiple key-value pairs. If present they will have at least one value. In the exmaple above, if the argument list containted qw(-hashx a=b c=d -hashx -e=f -argx bar), the hash %hash would end up with a value of (a => b, c => d, -e => f).

DEFAULT PARAMETERS

If no arguments are given to getopt() then it assumes that the argument list to parse is \@ARGV and that the flags and switch references are \%::flags and \%::switches respectively.

Likewise, if no arguments are given to usage() then it assumes that filename to look for information in is (caller(0))[1] and that the flags and switches are as above.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (C) 1998, 2002, David Muir Sharnoff. This modules licensed under the terms of The Artistic License as found at http://www.opensource.org/licenses/artistic-license.php. The optional aggregation clause is in effect.