Parsing command-line arguments in C

Question

I'm trying to write a program that can compare two files line by line, word by word, or character by character in C. It has to be able to read in command line options -l, -w, -i or --...

• if the option is -l, it compares the files line by line.
• if the option is -w, it compares the files word by word.
• if the option is --, it automatically assumes that the next argument is the first filename.
• if the option is -i, it compares them in a case insensitive manner.
• defaults to comparing the files character by character.

It's not supposed to matter how many times the options are input as long as -w and -l aren't inputted at the same time and there are no more or less than two files.

I don't even know where to begin with parsing the command line arguments.

So this is the code that I came up with for everything. I haven't error checked it quite yet, but am I writing things in an overcomplicated manner?

/*
 * Functions to compare files.
 */
int compare_line();
int compare_word();
int compare_char();
int case_insens();

/*
 * Program to compare the information in two files and print message saying
 * whether or not this was successful.
 */
int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
    /* Loop counter */
    size_t i = 0;

    /* Variables for functions */
    int caseIns = 0;
    int line = 0;
    int word = 0;

    /* File pointers */
    FILE *fp1, *fp2;

    /*
     * Read through command-line arguments for options.
     */
    for (i = 1; i < argc; i++)
    {
        printf("argv[%u] = %s\n", i, argv[i]);
        if (argv[i][0] == '-')
        {
             if (argv[i][1] == 'i')
             {
                 caseIns = 1;
             }
             if (argv[i][1] == 'l')
             {
                 line = 1;
             }
             if (argv[i][1] == 'w')
             {
                 word = 1;
             }
             if (argv[i][1] == '-')
             {
                 fp1 = argv[i][2];
                 fp2 = argv[i][3];
             }
             else
             {
                 printf("Invalid option.");
                 return 2;
             }
        }
        else
        {
           fp1(argv[i]);
           fp2(argv[i][1]);
        }
    }

    /*
     * Check that files can be opened.
     */
    if(((fp1 = fopen(fp1, "rb")) ==  NULL) || ((fp2 = fopen(fp2, "rb")) == NULL))
    {
        perror("fopen()");
        return 3;
    }
    else
    {
        if (caseIns == 1)
        {
            if(line == 1 && word == 1)
            {
                printf("That is invalid.");
                return 2;
            }
            if(line == 1 && word == 0)
            {
                if(compare_line(case_insens(fp1, fp2)) == 0)
                        return 0;
            }
            if(line == 0 && word == 1)
            {
                if(compare_word(case_insens(fp1, fp2)) == 0)
                    return 0;
            }
            else
            {
                if(compare_char(case_insens(fp1,fp2)) == 0)
                    return 0;
            }
        }
        else
        {
            if(line == 1 && word == 1)
            {
                printf("That is invalid.");
                return 2;
            }
            if(line == 1 && word == 0)
            {
                if(compare_line(fp1, fp2) == 0)
                    return 0;
            }
            if(line == 0 && word == 1)
            {
                if(compare_word(fp1, fp2) == 0)
                    return 0;
            }
            else
            {
                if(compare_char(fp1, fp2) == 0)
                    return 0;
            }
        }
    }
    return 1;

    if(((fp1 = fclose(fp1)) == NULL) || (((fp2 = fclose(fp2)) == NULL)))
    {
        perror("fclose()");
        return 3;
    }
    else
    {
        fp1 = fclose(fp1);
        fp2 = fclose(fp2);
    }
}

/*
 * Function to compare two files line-by-line.
 */
int compare_line(FILE *fp1, FILE *fp2)
{
    /* Buffer variables to store the lines in the file */
    char buff1 [LINESIZE];
    char buff2 [LINESIZE];

    /* Check that neither is the end of file */
    while((!feof(fp1)) && (!feof(fp2)))
    {
        /* Go through files line by line */
        fgets(buff1, LINESIZE, fp1);
        fgets(buff2, LINESIZE, fp2);
    }

    /* Compare files line by line */
    if(strcmp(buff1, buff2) == 0)
    {
        printf("Files are equal.\n");
        return 0;
    }
    printf("Files are not equal.\n");
    return 1;
}

/*
 * Function to compare two files word-by-word.
 */
int compare_word(FILE *fp1, FILE *fp2)
{
    /* File pointers */
    FILE *fp1, *fp2;

    /* Arrays to store words */
    char fp1words[LINESIZE];
    char fp2words[LINESIZE];

    if(strtok(fp1, " ") == NULL || strtok(fp2, " ") == NULL)
    {
        printf("File is empty. Cannot compare.\n");
        return 0;
    }
    else
    {
        fp1words = strtok(fp1, " ");
        fp2words = strtok(fp2, " ");

        if(fp1words == fp2words)
        {
            fputs(fp1words);
            fputs(fp2words);
            printf("Files are equal.\n");
            return 0;
        }
    }
    return 1;
}

/*
 * Function to compare two files character by character.
 */
int compare_char(FILE *fp1,FILE *fp2)
{
    /* Variables to store the characters from both files */
    int c;
    int d;

    /* Buffer variables to store chars */
    char buff1 [LINESIZE];
    char buff2 [LINESIZE];

    while(((c = fgetc(fp1))!= EOF) && (((d = fgetc(fp2))!=EOF)))
    {
        if(c == d)
        {
            if((fscanf(fp1, "%c", buff1)) == (fscanf(fp2, "%c", buff2)))
            {
                printf("Files have equivalent characters.\n");
                return 1;
                break;
            }
        }

    }
    return 0;
}

/*
 * Function to compare two files in a case-insensitive manner.
 */
int case_insens(FILE *fp1, FILE *fp2, size_t n)
{
    /* Pointers for files. */
    FILE *fp1, *fp2;

    /* Variable to go through files. */
    size_t i = 0;

    /* Arrays to store file information. */
    char fp1store[LINESIZE];
    char fp2store[LINESIZE];

    while(!feof(fp1) && !feof(fp2))
    {
        for(i = 0; i < n; i++)
        {
            fscanf(fp1, "%s", fp1store);
            fscanf(fp2, "%s", fp2store);

            fp1store = tolower(fp1store);
            fp2store = tolower(fp2store);

            return 1;
        }
    }
    return 0;
}

Answer 1

To my knowledge, the three most popular ways how to parse command line arguments in C are:

• Getopt (#include <unistd.h> from the POSIX C Library), which can solve simple argument parsing tasks. If you're a bit familiar with bash, the getopt built-in of bash is based on Getopt from the GNU libc.
• Argp (#include <argp.h> from the GNU C Library), which can solve more complex tasks and takes care of stuff like, for example:
  • -?, --help for help message, including email address
  • -V, --version for version information
  • --usage for usage message
• Doing it yourself, which I don't recommend for programs that would be given to somebody else, as there is too much that could go wrong or lower quality. The popular mistake of forgetting about '--' to stop option parsing is just one example.

The GNU C Library documentation has some nice examples for Getopt and Argp.

• http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/manual/html_node/Getopt.html
• http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/manual/html_node/Argp.html

Example for using Getopt

#include <stdbool.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    bool isCaseInsensitive = false;
    int opt;
    enum { CHARACTER_MODE, WORD_MODE, LINE_MODE } mode = CHARACTER_MODE;

    while ((opt = getopt(argc, argv, "ilw")) != -1) {
        switch (opt) {
        case 'i': isCaseInsensitive = true; break;
        case 'l': mode = LINE_MODE; break;
        case 'w': mode = WORD_MODE; break;
        default:
            fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s [-ilw] [file...]\n", argv[0]);
            exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
        }
    }

    // Now optind (declared extern int by <unistd.h>) is the index of the first non-option argument.
    // If it is >= argc, there were no non-option arguments.

    // ...
}

Example for using Argp

#include <argp.h>
#include <stdbool.h>

const char *argp_program_version = "programname programversion";
const char *argp_program_bug_address = "<[email protected]>";
static char doc[] = "Your program description.";
static char args_doc[] = "[FILENAME]...";
static struct argp_option options[] = { 
    { "line", 'l', 0, 0, "Compare lines instead of characters."},
    { "word", 'w', 0, 0, "Compare words instead of characters."},
    { "nocase", 'i', 0, 0, "Compare case insensitive instead of case sensitive."},
    { 0 } 
};

struct arguments {
    enum { CHARACTER_MODE, WORD_MODE, LINE_MODE } mode;
    bool isCaseInsensitive;
};

static error_t parse_opt(int key, char *arg, struct argp_state *state) {
    struct arguments *arguments = state->input;
    switch (key) {
    case 'l': arguments->mode = LINE_MODE; break;
    case 'w': arguments->mode = WORD_MODE; break;
    case 'i': arguments->isCaseInsensitive = true; break;
    case ARGP_KEY_ARG: return 0;
    default: return ARGP_ERR_UNKNOWN;
    }   
    return 0;
}

static struct argp argp = { options, parse_opt, args_doc, doc, 0, 0, 0 };

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    struct arguments arguments;

    arguments.mode = CHARACTER_MODE;
    arguments.isCaseInsensitive = false;

    argp_parse(&argp, argc, argv, 0, 0, &arguments);

    // ...
}

Example for Doing it Yourself

#include <stdbool.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{   
    bool isCaseInsensitive = false;
    enum { CHARACTER_MODE, WORD_MODE, LINE_MODE } mode = CHARACTER_MODE;
    size_t optind;
    for (optind = 1; optind < argc && argv[optind][0] == '-'; optind++) {
        switch (argv[optind][1]) {
        case 'i': isCaseInsensitive = true; break;
        case 'l': mode = LINE_MODE; break;
        case 'w': mode = WORD_MODE; break;
        default:
            fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s [-ilw] [file...]\n", argv[0]);
            exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
        }   
    }
    argv += optind;

    // *argv points to the remaining non-option arguments.
    // If *argv is NULL, there were no non-option arguments.

    // ...
}   

Disclaimer: I am new to Argp, the example might contain errors.

Answer 2

Use getopt(), or perhaps getopt_long().

int iflag = 0;
enum { WORD_MODE, LINE_MODE } op_mode = WORD_MODE;  // Default set
int opt;

while ((opt = getopt(argc, argv, "ilw") != -1)
{
    switch (opt)
    {
    case 'i':
        iflag = 1;
        break;
    case 'l':
        op_mode = LINE_MODE;
        break;
    case 'w':
        op_mode = WORD_MODE;
        break;
    default:
        fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s [-ilw] [file ...]\n", argv[0]);
        exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
    }
}

/* Process file names or stdin */
if (optind >= argc)
    process(stdin, "(standard input)", op_mode);
else
{
    int i;
    for (i = optind; i < argc; i++)
    {
        FILE *fp = fopen(argv[i], "r");
        if (fp == 0)
            fprintf(stderr, "%s: failed to open %s (%d %s)\n",
                    argv[0], argv[i], errno, strerror(errno));
        else
        {
            process(fp, argv[i], op_mode);
            fclose(fp);
        }
    }
 }

Note that you need to determine which headers to include (I make it 4 that are required), and the way I wrote the op_mode type means you have a problem in the function process() - you can't access the enumeration down there. It's best to move the enumeration outside the function; you might even make op_mode a file-scope variable without external linkage (a fancy way of saying static) to avoid passing it to the function. This code does not handle - as a synonym for standard input, another exercise for the reader. Note that getopt() automatically takes care of -- to mark the end of options for you.

I've not run any version of the typing above past a compiler; there could be mistakes in it.

---

For extra credit, write a (library) function:

int filter(int argc, char **argv, int idx, int (*function)(FILE *fp, const char *fn));

which encapsulates the logic for processing file name options after the getopt() loop. It should handle - as standard input. Note that using this would indicate that op_mode should be a static file scope variable. The filter() function takes argc, argv, optind and a pointer to the processing function. It should return 0 (EXIT_SUCCESS) if it was able to open all the files and all invocations of the function reported 0, otherwise 1 (or EXIT_FAILURE). Having such a function simplifies writing Unix-style 'filter' programs that read files specified on the command line or standard input.