[Gcl-devel] command line arguments

[Jared C. Davis]

Hi,

I'm trying to write a wrapper function that provides uniform access to
the command-line arguments of Lisp programs across many Lisps.

In CCL (and also in Allegro, CLISP, CMUCL, SBCL, mutatis mutandis), one can do:

   $ cat myprog-ccl
   #!/bin/sh
   exec ccl -I myprog.ccl -K ISO-8858-1 -e "(myprog::main)" -- "$@"

The options that come before the special "--" argument here are "for
the Lisp", and options after it are "for my program."

This is especially nice because there is no ambiguity:
  #1. If my program takes its own -I switch, that's okay: the LIsp
isn't going to get confused and think that I'm telling it to use some
other image.
  #2. If my program doesn't have its own -K switch, that's fine: the
Lisp isn't going to send that option to the program, because it's an
option for the Lisp.

Does GCL have any command-line switch similar to "--"?

>From the man page, it almost sounds like I want to use -f.  But that
seems to do something strange involving reading files, and so it
doesn't seem quite right.

If there is no such option, I guess I can at least write my wrapper
script along the following lines:

  $ cat myprog-gcl
  #!/bin/sh
  exec myprog.gcl -eval "(myprog::main)" -- "$@"

Then, in my program, I could at least throw out everything before the
"--" in si::*command-args*.

This would at least give me the good behavior #2.  But since GCL would
still be processing all of the arguments, it doesn't seem like it
solves #1.  For instance, if my program has its own options with names
like -f, -dir, -eval, etc., then GCL will think are options for it,
and then would presumably try to do crazy things.

Thanks!
Jared

-- 
Jared C. Davis <address@hidden>
11410 Windermere Meadows
Austin, TX 78759
http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/jared/