The suggestions for boost::program_options and GNU getopt are good ones.

However, for simple command line options I tend to use std::find

For example, to read the name of a file after a -f command line argument. You can also just detect if a single-word option has been passed in like -h for help.

#include <algorithm>

char* getCmdOption(char ** begin, char ** end, const std::string & option)
{
    char ** itr = std::find(begin, end, option);
    if (itr != end && ++itr != end)
    {
        return *itr;
    }
    return 0;
}

bool cmdOptionExists(char** begin, char** end, const std::string& option)
{
    return std::find(begin, end, option) != end;
}

int main(int argc, char * argv[])
{
    if(cmdOptionExists(argv, argv+argc, "-h"))
    {
        // Do stuff
    }

    char * filename = getCmdOption(argv, argv + argc, "-f");

    if (filename)
    {
        // Do interesting things
        // ...
    }

    return 0;
}

On thing to look out for with this approach you must use std::strings as the value for std::find otherwise the equality check is performed on the pointer values.

I hope it is okay to edit this response instead adding a new one, as this is based on the original answer. I re-wrote the functions slightly and encapsulated them in a class, so here is the code. I thought it might be practical to use it that way as well:

class InputParser{
    public:
        InputParser (int &argc, char **argv){
            for (int i=1; i < argc; ++i)
                this->tokens.push_back(std::string(argv[i]));
        }
        /// @author iain
        const std::string& getCmdOption(const std::string &option) const{
            std::vector<std::string>::const_iterator itr;
            itr =  std::find(this->tokens.begin(), this->tokens.end(), option);
            if (itr != this->tokens.end() && ++itr != this->tokens.end()){
                return *itr;
            }
            static const std::string empty_string("");
            return empty_string;
        }
        /// @author iain
        bool cmdOptionExists(const std::string &option) const{
            return std::find(this->tokens.begin(), this->tokens.end(), option)
                   != this->tokens.end();
        }
    private:
        std::vector <std::string> tokens;
};

int main(int argc, char **argv){
    InputParser input(argc, argv);
    if(input.cmdOptionExists("-h")){
        // Do stuff
    }
    const std::string &filename = input.getCmdOption("-f");
    if (!filename.empty()){
        // Do interesting things ...
    }
    return 0;
}

I can suggest Templatized C++ Command Line Parser Library (some forks on GitHub are available), the API is very straightforward and (cited from the site):

the library is implemented entirely in header files making it easy to use and distribute with other software. It is licensed under the MIT License for worry free distribution.

This is an example from the manual, colored here for simplicity:

#include <string>
#include <iostream>
#include <algorithm>
#include <tclap/CmdLine.h>

int main(int argc, char** argv)
{

    // Wrap everything in a try block.  Do this every time,
    // because exceptions will be thrown for problems.
    try {

    // Define the command line object, and insert a message
    // that describes the program. The "Command description message"
    // is printed last in the help text. The second argument is the
    // delimiter (usually space) and the last one is the version number.
    // The CmdLine object parses the argv array based on the Arg objects
    // that it contains.
    TCLAP::CmdLine cmd("Command description message", ' ', "0.9");

    // Define a value argument and add it to the command line.
    // A value arg defines a flag and a type of value that it expects,
    // such as "-n Bishop".
    TCLAP::ValueArg<std::string> nameArg("n","name","Name to print",true,"homer","string");

    // Add the argument nameArg to the CmdLine object. The CmdLine object
    // uses this Arg to parse the command line.
    cmd.add( nameArg );

    // Define a switch and add it to the command line.
    // A switch arg is a boolean argument and only defines a flag that
    // indicates true or false.  In this example the SwitchArg adds itself
    // to the CmdLine object as part of the constructor.  This eliminates
    // the need to call the cmd.add() method.  All args have support in
    // their constructors to add themselves directly to the CmdLine object.
    // It doesn't matter which idiom you choose, they accomplish the same thing.
    TCLAP::SwitchArg reverseSwitch("r","reverse","Print name backwards", cmd, false);

    // Parse the argv array.
    cmd.parse( argc, argv );

    // Get the value parsed by each arg.
    std::string name = nameArg.getValue();
    bool reverseName = reverseSwitch.getValue();

    // Do what you intend.
    if ( reverseName )
    {
            std::reverse(name.begin(),name.end());
            std::cout << "My name (spelled backwards) is: " << name << std::endl;
    }
    else
            std::cout << "My name is: " << name << std::endl;


    } catch (TCLAP::ArgException &e)  // catch any exceptions
    { std::cerr << "error: " << e.error() << " for arg " << e.argId() << std::endl; }
}

Boost.Program_options

You can use GNU GetOpt (LGPL) or one of the various C++ ports, such as getoptpp (GPL).

A simple example using GetOpt of what you want (prog [-ab] input) is the following:

// C Libraries:
#include <string>
#include <iostream>
#include <unistd.h>

// Namespaces:
using namespace std;

int main(int argc, char** argv) {
    int opt;
    string input = "";
    bool flagA = false;
    bool flagB = false;

    // Retrieve the (non-option) argument:
    if ( (argc <= 1) || (argv[argc-1] == NULL) || (argv[argc-1][0] == '-') ) {  // there is NO input...
        cerr << "No argument provided!" << endl;
        //return 1;
    }
    else {  // there is an input...
        input = argv[argc-1];
    }

    // Debug:
    cout << "input = " << input << endl;

    // Shut GetOpt error messages down (return '?'): 
    opterr = 0;

    // Retrieve the options:
    while ( (opt = getopt(argc, argv, "ab")) != -1 ) {  // for each option...
        switch ( opt ) {
            case 'a':
                    flagA = true;
                break;
            case 'b':
                    flagB = true;
                break;
            case '?':  // unknown option...
                    cerr << "Unknown option: '" << char(optopt) << "'!" << endl;
                break;
        }
    }

    // Debug:
    cout << "flagA = " << flagA << endl;
    cout << "flagB = " << flagB << endl;

    return 0;
}

GNU GetOpt.

A simple example using GetOpt:

// C/C++ Libraries:
#include <string>
#include <iostream>
#include <unistd.h>

// Namespaces:
using namespace std;

int main(int argc, char** argv) {
    int opt;
    bool flagA = false;
    bool flagB = false;

    // Shut GetOpt error messages down (return '?'): 
    opterr = 0;

    // Retrieve the options:
    while ( (opt = getopt(argc, argv, "ab")) != -1 ) {  // for each option...
        switch ( opt ) {
            case 'a':
                    flagA = true;
                break;
            case 'b':
                    flagB = true;
                break;
            case '?':  // unknown option...
                    cerr << "Unknown option: '" << char(optopt) << "'!" << endl;
                break;
        }
    }

    // Debug:
    cout << "flagA = " << flagA << endl;
    cout << "flagB = " << flagB << endl;

    return 0;
}

You can also use optarg if you have options that accept arguments.

Yet another alternative is The Lean Mean C++ Option Parser:

It is a header-only library (just a single header file, in fact) and unlike all the other suggestions it is also freestanding, i.e. it has no dependencies whatsoever. In particular there's no dependency on the STL. It does not even use exceptions or anything else that requires library support. This means it can be linked with plain C or other languages without introducing "foreign" libraries.

Like boost::program_options its API offers convenient direct access to options, i.e. you can write code like this

if (options[HELP]) ... ;

and

int verbosity = options[VERBOSE].count();

Unlike boost::program_options however this is simply using an array indexed with a (user-provided) enum. This offers the convenience of an associative container without the weight.

It's well documented and has a company-friendly license (MIT).

TLMC++OP includes a nice formatter for usage messages that can do line-wrapping and column alignment which is useful if you're localizing your program, because it ensures that the output will look good even in languages that have longer messages. It also saves you the nuisance of manually formatting your usage for 80 columns.

for (int i = 1; i < argc; i++) {

    if (strcmp(argv[i],"-i")==0) {
        filename = argv[i+1];
        printf("filename: %s",filename);
    } else if (strcmp(argv[i],"-c")==0) {
        convergence = atoi(argv[i + 1]);
        printf("\nconvergence: %d",convergence);
    } else if (strcmp(argv[i],"-a")==0) {
        accuracy = atoi(argv[i + 1]);
        printf("\naccuracy:%d",accuracy);
    } else if (strcmp(argv[i],"-t")==0) {
        targetBitRate = atof(argv[i + 1]);
        printf("\ntargetBitRate:%f",targetBitRate);
    } else if (strcmp(argv[i],"-f")==0) {
        frameRate = atoi(argv[i + 1]);
        printf("\nframeRate:%d",frameRate);
    }

}

TCLAP is a really nice lightweight design and easy to use:

You probably want to use an external library for that. There are many to chose from.

Boost has a very feature-rich (as usual) library Boost Program Options.

My personal favorite for the last few years has been TCLAP -- purely templated, hence no library or linking, automated '--help' generation and other goodies. See the simplest example from the docs.

I find it easier to use ezOptionParser. It's also a single header file, does not depend on anything but STL, works for Windows and Linux (very likely other platforms too), has no learning curve thanks to the examples, has features other libraries don't (like file import/export with comments, arbitrary option names with delimiters, auto usage formatting, etc), and is LGPL licensed.

If you just want to process command line options yourself, the easiest way is to put:

vector<string> args(argv + 1, argv + argc);

at the top of your main(). This copies all command-line arguments into a vector of std::strings. Then you can use == to compare strings easily, instead of endless strcmp() calls. For example:

int main(int argc, char **argv) {
    vector<string> args(argv + 1, argv + argc);
    string infname, outfname;

    // Loop over command-line args
    // (Actually I usually use an ordinary integer loop variable and compare
    // args[i] instead of *i -- don't tell anyone! ;)
    for (auto i = args.begin(); i != args.end(); ++i) {
        if (*i == "-h" || *i == "--help") {
            cout << "Syntax: foomatic -i <infile> -o <outfile>" << endl;
            return 0;
        } else if (*i == "-i") {
            infname = *++i;
        } else if (*i == "-o") {
            outfname = *++i;
        }
    }
}

[EDIT: I realised I was copying argv[0], the name of the program, into args -- fixed.]

And there's a Google library available.

Really, command-line parsing is "solved." Just pick one.

With C++, the answer is usually in Boost...

Boost.Program Options

Try Boost::Program Options. It allows you to read and parse command lines as well as config files.

I think that GNU GetOpt is not too immediate to use.

Qt and Boost could be a solution, but you need to download and compile a lot of code.

So I implemented a parser by myself that produces a std::map<std::string, std::string> of parameters.

For example, calling:

 ./myProgram -v -p 1234

map will be:

 ["-v"][""]
 ["-p"]["1234"]

Usage is:

int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
    MainOptions mo(argc, argv);
    MainOptions::Option* opt = mo.getParamFromKey("-p");
    const string type = opt ? (*opt).second : "";
    cout << type << endl; /* Prints 1234 */
    /* Your check code */
}

MainOptions.h

#ifndef MAINOPTIONS_H_
#define MAINOPTIONS_H_

#include <map>
#include <string>

class MainOptions {
public:
    typedef std::pair<std::string, std::string> Option;
    MainOptions(int argc, char *argv[]);
    virtual ~MainOptions();
    std::string getAppName() const;
    bool hasKey(const std::string&) const;
    Option* getParamFromKey(const std::string&) const;
    void printOptions() const;
private:
    typedef std::map<std::string, std::string> Options;
    void parse();
    const char* const *begin() const;
    const char* const *end() const;
    const char* const *last() const;
    Options options_;
    int argc_;
    char** argv_;
    std::string appName_;
};

MainOptions.cpp

#include "MainOptions.h"

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

MainOptions::MainOptions(int argc, char* argv[]) :
        argc_(argc),
        argv_(argv) {
    appName_ = argv_[0];
    this->parse();
}

MainOptions::~MainOptions() {
}

std::string MainOptions::getAppName() const {
    return appName_;
}

void MainOptions::parse() {
    typedef pair<string, string> Option;
    Option* option = new pair<string, string>();
    for (const char* const * i = this->begin() + 1; i != this->end(); i++) {
        const string p = *i;
        if (option->first == "" && p[0] == '-') {
            option->first = p;
            if (i == this->last()) {
                options_.insert(Option(option->first, option->second));
            }
            continue;
        } else if (option->first != "" && p[0] == '-') {
            option->second = "null"; /* or leave empty? */
            options_.insert(Option(option->first, option->second));
            option->first = p;
            option->second = "";
            if (i == this->last()) {
                options_.insert(Option(option->first, option->second));
            }
            continue;
        } else if (option->first != "") {
            option->second = p;
            options_.insert(Option(option->first, option->second));
            option->first = "";
            option->second = "";
            continue;
        }
    }
}

void MainOptions::printOptions() const {
    std::map<std::string, std::string>::const_iterator m = options_.begin();
    int i = 0;
    if (options_.empty()) {
        cout << "No parameters\n";
    }
    for (; m != options_.end(); m++, ++i) {
        cout << "Parameter [" << i << "] [" << (*m).first << " " << (*m).second
                << "]\n";
    }
}

const char* const *MainOptions::begin() const {
    return argv_;
}

const char* const *MainOptions::end() const {
    return argv_ + argc_;
}

const char* const *MainOptions::last() const {
    return argv_ + argc_ - 1;
}

bool MainOptions::hasKey(const std::string& key) const {
    return options_.find(key) != options_.end();
}

MainOptions::Option* MainOptions::getParamFromKey(
        const std::string& key) const {
    const Options::const_iterator i = options_.find(key);
    MainOptions::Option* o = 0;
    if (i != options_.end()) {
        o = new MainOptions::Option((*i).first, (*i).second);
    }
    return o;
}

There are these tools in the GNU C Library, which includes GetOpt.

If you are using Qt and like the GetOpt interface, froglogic has published a nice interface here.

Tooting my own horn if I may, I'd also like to suggest taking a look at an option parsing library that I've written: dropt.

• It's a C library (with a C++ wrapper if desired).
• It's lightweight.
• It's extensible (custom argument types can be easily added and have equal footing with built-in argument types).
• It should be very portable (it's written in standard C) with no dependencies (other than the C standard library).
• It has a very unrestrictive license (zlib/libpng).

One feature that it offers that many others don't is the ability to override earlier options. For example, if you have a shell alias:

alias bar="foo --flag1 --flag2 --flag3"

and you want to use bar but with--flag1 disabled, it allows you to do:

bar --flag1=0

I like C's getopt(), but then I'm old. :-)

Google's gflags

I'd suggest using a library. There's the classic and venerable getopt and I'm sure others.

There are a number of good libraries available.

Boost Program Options is a fairly heavyweight solution, both because adding it to your project requires you to build boost, and the syntax is somewhat confusing (in my opinion). However, it can do pretty much everything including having the command line options override those set in configuration files.

SimpleOpt is a fairly comprehensive but simple command line processor. It is a single file and has a simple structure, but only handles the parsing of the command line into options, you have to do all of the type and range checking. It is good for both Windows and Unix and comes with a version of glob for Windows too.

getopt is available on Windows. It is the same as on Unix machines, but it is often a GPL library.

AnyOption is a C++ class for easy parsing of complex commandline options. It also parses options from a rsourcefile in option value pair format.

AnyOption implements the traditional POSIX style character options ( -n ) as well as the newer GNU style long options ( --name ). Or you can use a simpler long option version ( -name ) by asking to ignore the POSIX style options.

Qt 5.2 comes with a command line parser API.

Small example:

#include <QCoreApplication>
#include <QCommandLineParser>
#include <QDebug>

int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
  QCoreApplication app(argc, argv);
  app.setApplicationName("ToolX");
  app.setApplicationVersion("1.2");

  QCommandLineParser parser;
  parser.setApplicationDescription("Tool for doing X.");
  parser.addHelpOption();
  parser.addVersionOption();
  parser.addPositionalArgument("infile",
      QCoreApplication::translate("main", "Input file."));

  QCommandLineOption verbose_opt("+",
      QCoreApplication::translate("main", "be verbose"));
  parser.addOption(verbose_opt);

  QCommandLineOption out_opt(QStringList() << "o" << "output",
      QCoreApplication::translate("main", "Output file."),
      QCoreApplication::translate("main", "filename"), // value name
      QCoreApplication::translate("main", "out")   // default value
      );
  parser.addOption(out_opt);

  // exits on error
  parser.process(app);

  const QStringList args = parser.positionalArguments();

  qDebug() << "Input files: " << args
    << ", verbose: " << parser.isSet(verbose_opt)
    << ", output: " << parser.value(out_opt)
    << '\n';
  return 0;
}

Example output

The automatically generated help screen:

$ ./qtopt -h
Usage: ./qtopt [options] infile
Tool for doing X.

Options:
  -h, --help               Displays this help.
  -v, --version            Displays version information.
  -+                       be verbose
  -o, --output   Output file.

Arguments:
  infile                   Input file.

Automatically generated version output:

$ ./qtopt -v
ToolX 1.2

Some real calls:

$ ./qtopt b1 -+ -o tmp blah.foo
Input files:  ("b1", "blah.foo") , verbose:  true , output:  "tmp"
$ ./qtopt          
Input files:  () , verbose:  false , output:  "out"

A parse error:

$ ./qtopt --hlp
Unknown option 'hlp'.
$ echo $?
1