Command Line Arguments

When a C program begins execution the shell passes parameters to the main program function that reflect the command line that began the program.

 
    void main(int argc, char *argv[])

Where:

argc - number of arguments to the program
argv[0] - name of the program
argv[1] - string representing the 1st argument to the command
argv[2] - string representing the 2nd argument to the command
etc

Program

#include <stdlib.h> #include <stdio.h> main(int argc, char *argv[]) { int i; printf("%s called with %d arguments:\n",argv[0], argc); for(i = 0; i < argc; i++) { printf(" argv[%d] = %s\n", i, argv[i]); } }

Output

% cc args.c % a.out foo bar 13.3 mumble 2 a.out called with 6 arguments: argv[0] = a.out argv[1] = foo argv[2] = bar argv[3] = 13.3 argv[4] = mumble argv[5] = 2

Sunday, 08-Nov-1998 15:57:31 EST