Command Line Options

Command Line Options.

All options must be preceeded with an option flag indicator, either '-'. Thus to specify the options 'n', 'N' and 'l', the following command line syntax would be used:

-n -N -l

Options may be grouped together in one command line 'token'. Thus the above options could be more conveniently specified as:

-nNl

Some options require that values be specified also. There are three methods for specifying values for options:

The value is the remainder of the command line token following the option
The value is part of the same command line token, enclosed in parenthesis
The value is the next command line token

In interpreting command line tokens, QTGrep obeys the following rules to implement the above methods:

If any characters remain as part of the current command line token following the current option being interpreted and the next character is not a left parenthesis, '(', , then QTGrep defaults to method one and the remainder of the current token becomes the value for the option.
If any characters remain as part of the current command line token following the current option being interpreted and the next character is a left parenthesis, '(', , then QTGrep defaults to method two and any characters following the left parenthesis, up to the end of the token or a right parenthesis, ')', whichever comes first become the value of the option. This rule implies that if the value is the remainder of the current token, then the right parenthesis is optional and method two and method three yield similar results.
If no characters remain as part of the current command line token following the current option being interpreted, then the next command line token becomes the value of the option.

Thus, an input pattern file for the 'f' option could be specified as:

        -f(pattern.txt)
    or -f(pattern.txt
    or -f pattern.txt

If more than one option, 'n' and 'f', is specified, and one requires a value, 'f', the options may be grouped as:

        -nf(pattern.txt
    or -nfpattern.txt
    or -f(pattern.txt)n
    or -nf pattern.txt

if two options are specified which require values, the options may be be grouped in the same token with the corresponding values in the same token or following tokens. Thus both the 'W' and 'f' options may be specified as follows:

'output.pat' as the output file for the 'W' option, and
'pattern.txt' as the input file for the 'f' option:

        -W output.pat -f pattern.txt
    or -W(output.pat)f(pattern.txt)
    or -W(output.pat -f(pattern.txt
    or -Woutput.pat -fpattern.txt
    or -W(output.pat -f pattern.txt
    or -W output.pat -f(pattern.txt