ocaml/stdlib/arg.mli

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(*                         Caml Special Light                          *)
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(*            Xavier Leroy, projet Cristal, INRIA Rocquencourt         *)
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(*  Copyright 1995 Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et   *)
(*  Automatique.  Distributed only by permission.                      *)
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(* $Id$ *)

(* Module [Arg]: parsing of command line arguments *)

(* This module provides a general mechanism for extracting options and
   arguments from the command line to the program. *)

(* Syntax of command lines:
    A keyword is a character string starting with a [-].
    An option is a keyword alone or followed by an argument.
    There are six types of keywords: [Unit], [String], [Int], and [Float].
    [Unit], [Set_flag] and [Clear_flag] keywords do not take an argument.
    [String], [Int], and [Float] keywords take the following word on the
    command line as an argument.
    Arguments not preceded by a keyword are called anonymous arguments. *)

(*  Examples ([cmd] is assumed to be the command name):
-   [cmd -flag           ](a unit option)
-   [cmd -int 1          ](an int option with argument [1])
-   [cmd -string foobar  ](a string option with argument ["foobar"])
-   [cmd -float 12.34    ](a float option with argument [12.34])
-   [cmd 1 2 3           ](three anonymous arguments: ["1"], ["2"], and ["3"])
*)

type spec =
    Unit of (unit -> unit)     (* Call the function with no argument *)
  | Set of bool ref            (* Set the reference to true *)
  | Clear of bool ref          (* Set the reference to false *)
  | String of (string -> unit) (* Call the function with a string argument *)
  | Int of (int -> unit)       (* Call the function with an int argument *)
  | Float of (float -> unit)   (* Call the function with a float argument *)
        (* The concrete type describing the behavior associated
           with a keyword. *)

val parse : (string * spec) list -> (string -> unit) -> unit
        (* [parse speclist anonfun] parses the command line,
           calling the functions in [speclist] whenever appropriate,
           and [anonfun] on anonymous arguments.
           The functions are called in the same order as they appear
           on the command line.
           The strings in the [(string * spec) list] are keywords and must
           start with a [-], else they are ignored. *)

exception Bad of string
        (* Functions in [speclist] or [anonfun] can raise [Bad] with
           an error message to reject invalid arguments. *)