How do I parse command line arguments in Bash?

No answer mentions enhanced getopt. And the top-voted answer is misleading: It either ignores -⁠vfd style short options (requested by the OP) or options after positional arguments (also requested by the OP); and it ignores parsing-errors. Instead:

• Use enhanced getopt from util-linux or formerly GNU glibc.^₁
• It works with getopt_long() the C function of GNU glibc.
• Has all useful distinguishing features (the others don’t have them):
  • handles spaces, quoting characters and even binary in arguments^₂ (non-enhanced getopt can’t do this)
  • it can handle options at the end: script.sh -o outFile file1 file2 -v (getopts doesn’t do this)
  • allows =-style long options: script.sh --outfile=fileOut --infile fileIn (allowing both is lengthy if self parsing)
  • allows combined short options, e.g. -vfd (real work if self parsing)
  • allows touching option-arguments, e.g. -oOutfile or -vfdoOutfile
• Is so old already^₃ that no GNU system is missing this (e.g. any Linux has it).
• You can test for its existence with: getopt --test → return value 4.
• Other getopt or shell-builtin getopts are of limited use.

The following calls

myscript -vfd ./foo/bar/someFile -o /fizz/someOtherFile
myscript -v -f -d -o/fizz/someOtherFile -- ./foo/bar/someFile
myscript --verbose --force --debug ./foo/bar/someFile -o/fizz/someOtherFile
myscript --output=/fizz/someOtherFile ./foo/bar/someFile -vfd
myscript ./foo/bar/someFile -df -v --output /fizz/someOtherFile

all return

verbose: y, force: y, debug: y, in: ./foo/bar/someFile, out: /fizz/someOtherFile

with the following myscript

#!/bin/bash
# saner programming env: these switches turn some bugs into errors
set -o errexit -o pipefail -o noclobber -o nounset

# -allow a command to fail with !’s side effect on errexit
# -use return value from ${PIPESTATUS[0]}, because ! hosed $?
! getopt --test > /dev/null 
if [[ ${PIPESTATUS[0]} -ne 4 ]]; then
    echo 'I’m sorry, `getopt --test` failed in this environment.'
    exit 1
fi

OPTIONS=dfo:v
LONGOPTS=debug,force,output:,verbose

# -regarding ! and PIPESTATUS see above
# -temporarily store output to be able to check for errors
# -activate quoting/enhanced mode (e.g. by writing out “--options”)
# -pass arguments only via   -- "[email protected]"   to separate them correctly
! PARSED=$(getopt --options=$OPTIONS --longoptions=$LONGOPTS --name "$0" -- "[email protected]")
if [[ ${PIPESTATUS[0]} -ne 0 ]]; then
    # e.g. return value is 1
    #  then getopt has complained about wrong arguments to stdout
    exit 2
fi
# read getopt’s output this way to handle the quoting right:
eval set -- "$PARSED"

d=n f=n v=n outFile=-
# now enjoy the options in order and nicely split until we see --
while true; do
    case "$1" in
        -d|--debug)
            d=y
            shift
            ;;
        -f|--force)
            f=y
            shift
            ;;
        -v|--verbose)
            v=y
            shift
            ;;
        -o|--output)
            outFile="$2"
            shift 2
            ;;
        --)
            shift
            break
            ;;
        *)
            echo "Programming error"
            exit 3
            ;;
    esac
done

# handle non-option arguments
if [[ $# -ne 1 ]]; then
    echo "$0: A single input file is required."
    exit 4
fi

echo "verbose: $v, force: $f, debug: $d, in: $1, out: $outFile"

^₁ enhanced getopt is available on most “bash-systems”, including Cygwin; on OS X try brew install gnu-getopt or sudo port install getopt
^₂ the POSIX exec() conventions have no reliable way to pass binary NULL in command line arguments; those bytes prematurely end the argument
^₃ first version released in 1997 or before (I only tracked it back to 1997)

More succinct way

script.sh

#!/bin/bash

while [[ "$#" -gt 0 ]]; do
    case $1 in
        -d|--deploy) deploy="$2"; shift ;;
        -u|--uglify) uglify=1 ;;
        *) echo "Unknown parameter passed: $1"; exit 1 ;;
    esac
    shift
done

echo "Should deploy? $deploy"
echo "Should uglify? $uglify"

Usage:

./script.sh -d dev -u

# OR:

./script.sh --deploy dev --uglify

from : digitalpeer.com with minor modifications

Usage myscript.sh -p=my_prefix -s=dirname -l=libname

#!/bin/bash
for i in "[email protected]"
do
case $i in
    -p=*|--prefix=*)
    PREFIX="${i#*=}"

    ;;
    -s=*|--searchpath=*)
    SEARCHPATH="${i#*=}"
    ;;
    -l=*|--lib=*)
    DIR="${i#*=}"
    ;;
    --default)
    DEFAULT=YES
    ;;
    *)
            # unknown option
    ;;
esac
done
echo PREFIX = ${PREFIX}
echo SEARCH PATH = ${SEARCHPATH}
echo DIRS = ${DIR}
echo DEFAULT = ${DEFAULT}

To better understand ${i#*=} search for "Substring Removal" in this guide. It is functionally equivalent to `sed 's/[^=]*=//' <<< "$i"` which calls a needless subprocess or `echo "$i" | sed 's/[^=]*=//'` which calls two needless subprocesses.

getopt()/getopts() is a good option. Stolen from here:

The simple use of "getopt" is shown in this mini-script:

#!/bin/bash
echo "Before getopt"
for i
do
  echo $i
done
args=`getopt abc:d $*`
set -- $args
echo "After getopt"
for i
do
  echo "-->$i"
done

What we have said is that any of -a, -b, -c or -d will be allowed, but that -c is followed by an argument (the "c:" says that).

If we call this "g" and try it out:

bash-2.05a$ ./g -abc foo
Before getopt
-abc
foo
After getopt
-->-a
-->-b
-->-c
-->foo
-->--

We start with two arguments, and "getopt" breaks apart the options and puts each in its own argument. It also added "--".

At the risk of adding another example to ignore, here's my scheme.

• handles -n arg and --name=arg
• allows arguments at the end
• shows sane errors if anything is misspelled
• compatible, doesn't use bashisms
• readable, doesn't require maintaining state in a loop

Hope it's useful to someone.

while [ "$#" -gt 0 ]; do
  case "$1" in
    -n) name="$2"; shift 2;;
    -p) pidfile="$2"; shift 2;;
    -l) logfile="$2"; shift 2;;

    --name=*) name="${1#*=}"; shift 1;;
    --pidfile=*) pidfile="${1#*=}"; shift 1;;
    --logfile=*) logfile="${1#*=}"; shift 1;;
    --name|--pidfile|--logfile) echo "$1 requires an argument" >&2; exit 1;;

    -*) echo "unknown option: $1" >&2; exit 1;;
    *) handle_argument "$1"; shift 1;;
  esac
done