16.1: Parsing Command Line Arguments

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The operating system is responsible for parsing, or reading, the command line arguments and delivering the information to the program. It is the responsibility of the program to determine what is considered correct and incorrect. When reading the command line, the operating system will consider an argument a set of non-space characters (i.e., a string). The space or spaces between arguments is removed or ignored by the operating system. In addition, the program name itself is considered the first, and possibly only, argument. If other arguments are entered, at least one space is required between each argument.

All arguments are delivered to the program as character strings, even number information. If needed, the program must convert the character data into the number value (float or integer).

For example, executing the program expProg with the following command line arguments:

    ./expProg  one    42 three

will result in four arguments as follows:

    1. ./expProg 
    2. one
    3. 42
    4. three

The command line arguments are delivered to the program as parameters. As such, the program is like a function being called by the operating system. So, the standard calling convention is used to convey the parameters.