getopts

getopts optstring name [args]
              getopts  is used by shell procedures to parse positional parame‐
              ters.  optstring contains the option  characters  to  be  recog‐
              nized;  if  a  character  is  followed by a colon, the option is
              expected to have an argument, which should be separated from  it
              by  white space.  The colon and question mark characters may not
              be used as option characters.  Each time it is invoked,  getopts
              places  the next option in the shell variable name, initializing
              name if it does not exist, and the index of the next argument to
              be processed into the variable OPTIND.  OPTIND is initialized to
              1 each time the shell or a shell script  is  invoked.   When  an
              option  requires  an argument, getopts places that argument into
              the variable OPTARG.  The shell does not reset OPTIND  automati‐
              cally;  it  must  be  manually  reset  between multiple calls to
              getopts within the same shell invocation if a new set of parame‐
              ters is to be used.

              When  the  end  of  options is encountered, getopts exits with a
              return value greater than zero.  OPTIND is set to the  index  of
              the first non-option argument, and name is set to ?.

              getopts  normally  parses the positional parameters, but if more
              arguments are given in args, getopts parses those instead.

             getopts can report errors in two ways.  If the  first  character
              of  optstring  is  a  colon, silent error reporting is used.  In
              normal operation diagnostic messages are  printed  when  invalid
              options  or  missing  option  arguments are encountered.  If the
              variable OPTERR is set to 0, no  error  messages  will  be  dis‐
              played, even if the first character of optstring is not a colon.

              If an invalid option is seen, getopts places ? into name and, if
              not silent, prints an  error  message  and  unsets  OPTARG.   If
              getopts  is  silent,  the  option  character  found is placed in
              OPTARG and no diagnostic message is printed.

              If a required argument is not found, and getopts is not  silent,
              a  question  mark  (?) is placed in name, OPTARG is unset, and a
              diagnostic message is printed.  If getopts  is  silent,  then  a
              colon  (:)  is  placed  in  name and OPTARG is set to the option
              character found.

              getopts returns true if an option, specified or unspecified,  is
              found.  It returns false if the end of options is encountered or
              an error occurs.