Ask HN: Unix Utility Development Conventions

I'm slowly hacking away at a zsh script that shows some promise as a command line tool. I want to learn more about the conventions regarding command line tool development in Unix (and/or macOS), but don't really know where to look for this information.

What is the correct way, or convention, to specify and parse command line arguments, for example? How should I package my tool? What is the best way to handle deployment of the various aspects of my tool, for example the man page, or configuration settings? How should I handle the upgrade process?

Smaller details, like should I store my source code in the repo with execute permissions turned on, or should I only turn on those permissions when the files are deployed on the user's machine? What group should I set as the default for my executable files?

Does anyone know any great resources out there that address these issues?

jolmg 6y

What is the correct way, or convention, to specify and parse command line arguments, for example?

I often use variations of this pattern:

  version=1.0.0

  usage() {
    cat << EOF
  USAGE: $0 {{-f|--file} <filename>}

  Some description.

  OPTIONS
    -h, --help
      Display this help.

    -v, --version
      Display version.

    -f <filepath>, --file <filepath>
      Specify input file.
  EOF
  }

  while (( $# )); do
    case "$1" in
      -h|--help)
        usage
        exit
      ;;

      -v|--version)
        printf "%s\n" "$version"
        exit
      ;;

      -f|--file)
        input_file="$2"
        shift
      ;;

      *)
        >&2 printf "Unknown option: %s\n" "$1"
        >&2 usage
        exit 1
      ;;
    esac
    shift
  done

There are standard guidelines[1][2].

[1] https://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/standards.html#Command_00...

[2] https://cli-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/design/guidelines...

tannhaeuser 6y

https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/basedefs/V1...

http://catb.org/~esr/writings/taoup/html/ch10s05.html

rayascottOP6y

The Art of Unix Programming looks interesting, thanks!

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