Parsing short options | LPIC-1 102-500 Exam original practice question

105.2Standard

Parse -n NAME and -v in a Bash script, declaring that -n requires an argument.

Which getopts invocation is appropriate?

Hint 1: Focus on shell semantics

Separate command substitution, parameter and arithmetic expansion, condition operators, and exit-status flow before comparing the choices.

Hint 2: Key terms

Review the short definitions of shell expansion, condition operators, and command status.

getopts: A Bash builtin that parses short command-line options in sequence.
optstring: A string describing recognized option letters and whether they need arguments.
OPTARG: The variable where getopts stores an option's argument value.
OPTIND: The variable that identifies the next argument position for getopts.
required-argument marker: A colon after an option letter in optstring that makes its argument required.

Detailed explanation

Correctgetopts "n:v" opt

Correct. n: requires an argument and v does not.

Incorrectgetopts "nv:" opt

Incorrect. This makes v require an argument instead of n.

Incorrectgetopt "n:v"

Incorrect. getopt is an external utility, not the Bash builtin form requested.

Incorrectgetopts "-n NAME -v" opt

Incorrect. optstring contains option letters and colons, not usage text with spaces.

An example you can run in a temporary verification environment.

bash --noprofile --norc -c 'while getopts "n:v" opt; do printf "%s:%s\n" "$opt" "${OPTARG-}"; done' demo -n alice -v

n:aliceの後にv:

Foundation review

Check whether the command acts on the current shell, a new process, an existing process, or a file.

Use the supplied command and compare the output with the expected result.

Question IDKP-105-633

EnvironmentGNU Bash 5.2 / Bash組込みgetopts

Last technical review2026-08-13

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