How to split bash arguments on "--" and pass them to different...

kernel_kate

I want to write a shell script that calls two other programs, in sequence with && , but also allows customizing the arguments of each one, by passing arguments to my script, separated by the traditional -- . I don't want my script to need to be updated if the two programs change, so I don't want to rely on any specifics about the way those programs process arguments. I want to correctly handle edge cases like passing arguments involving spaces...

Originally asked by Ryan1729 on Stack Exchange (unix) (CC BY-SA 4.0).

uphilltech

Great question — answering as the UphillTech team:

#!/usr/bin/env bash first_args=() second_args=() target=first_args for arg in "$@"; do if [[ $arg == -- && $target == first_args ]]; then target=second_args else if [[ $target == first_args ]]; then first_args+=("$arg") else second_args+=("$arg") fi fi done first "${first_args[@]}" && second "${second_args[@]}" This will loop through all the arguments. If -- has not been seen yet the arguments will be added to the first_args array. Once -- has been seen all additional arguments will be added to the second_args array. These arrays can then be used to pass to your commands.

Full answer by jesse_b: https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/807690 (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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