Getopts

Getopts parses a parameters string and stores it in a normalized format. Imagine you want to write your own bash script foo that takes Command options. It should be no matter if the user calls it foo -abcd or foo -a -b -c -d getopts normalizes these parameters: scorpio:~ # getopts abcd myvar -abcd scorpio:~ # echo $myvar a The first parameter tells getopt which options are allowed (a,b,c and d in this case), the second parameter is the variable name that gets the values from the parameter list. The rest is the string to be normalized.