Parse almost any of the standard command line formats in use today with the same code on both Windows and Un*x. Includes full processing of filename wildcards (glob). Fully MBCS and Unicode enabled.

Features

• public domain == free to use in all software (including GPL and commercial)
  
• multi-platform (Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2K/XP, Linux, Unix)
  
• supports all types of options:
  — switch character only (e.g. use stdin for input)
  -o short (single character)
  -long long (multiple character, single switch character)
  --longer long (multiple character, multiple switch characters)
  word special word construed as an option, no switch characters
  
• supports all types of arguments for options:
  --option short/long option flag (no argument)
  --option ARG short/long option with separate required argument
  --option=ARG short/long option with combined required argument
  --option[=ARG] short/long option with combined optional argument
  -oARG short option with combined required argument
  -o[ARG] short option with combined optional argument
  
• supports clumping of multiple short options (no arguments) in a string, e.g. "foo.exe -abcdef file1" <==> "foo.exe -a -b -c -d -e -f file1"
  
• automatic recognition of a single slash as equivalent to a single hyphen on Windows, e.g. "/f FILE" <==> "-f FILE".
  
• file arguments can appear anywhere in the argument list: "foo.exe file1.txt -a ARG file2.txt --flag file3.txt file4.txt"
  
• file arguments will be returned to the application in the same order they were supplied on the command line
  
• short-circuit option matching: "--man" will match "--mandate"
  
• invalid options can be handled while continuing to parse the command line
  
• valid options list can be changed dynamically during command line processing, i.e. accept different options depending on an option supplied earlier in the command line.
  
• implemented with only a single C++ header file
  
• uses no C runtime or OS functions
  
• char, wchar_t and Windows TCHAR in the same program
  
• complete working examples included
  
• compiles cleanly at warning level 4 (Windows/VC.NET 2003), warning level 3 (Windows/VC6) and -Wall (Linux/gcc)