Changes in version 2.33
-----------------------
* Negatable options (with "!") now also support the "no-" prefix.
On request of Ed Avis <eavis@amadeus.net>.
* Some fixes with hashes and bundling.
Thanks to Anders Johnson <anders@wis-tech.com> and Andrei Gnepp <>.
Mandatory/optional status for hash values is now effective.
String valued options with no value now default to the empty string
instead of 1 (one).
NOTE: The hash options still remain more or less experimental.
* Fix a pass_through bug where the options terminator (normally "--")
was not passed through in @ARGV.
Thanks to Philippe Verdret <philippe.verdret@xps-pro.com>.
* Add FAQ: I "use GetOpt::Long;" (Windows) and now it doesn't work.
Changes in version 2.32
-----------------------
* Fix a bug where the initial value for a optional numeric argument
was not used for value of a hash option.
* Remove 5.005 thread safety code. Getopt::Long is completely thread
safe when using the 5.8 ithreads.
Changes in version 2.31
-----------------------
* Fix a bug where calling the configure method on a
Getopt::Long::Parser object would bail out with
Undefined subroutine &Getopt::Long::Parser::Configure called at
Getopt/Long.pm line 186.
Changes in version 2.30
-----------------------
* Fix a problem where a 'die' from a 'warn' via a localized
$SIG{__WARN__} was not properly propagated from a callback.
Thanks to Diab Jerius <dj@head-cfa.harvard.edu>.
Changes in version 2.29
-----------------------
* Fix a problem where options were not recognized when both
auto_abbrev and ignore_case were disabled. Thanks to Seth Robertson
<seth@systemdetection.com>.
* Remove Carp.
Changes in version 2.28
-----------------------
* When an option is specified more than once, a warning is generated
if perl is run with -w. This is a correction to 2.27, where it would
unconditionally die.
An example of duplicate specification is GetOptions('foo', 'foo'),
but also GetOptions('foo=s', 'foo') and GetOptions('Foo', 'foo')
(the latter only when ignore_case is in effect).
Changes in version 2.27
-----------------------
* You can now specify integer options to take an optional argument.
that defaults to a specific value. E.g., GetOptions('foo:5' => \$var)
will allow $var to get the value 5 when no value was specified with
the -foo option on the command line.
Instead of a value, a '+' may be specified. E.g.,
GetOptions('foo:+' => \$var) will allow $var to be incremented when
no value was specified with the -foo option on the command line.
* Fix several problems with internal and external use of 'die' and
signal handlers.
* Fixed some bugs with subtle combinations of bundling_override and
ignore_case.
* A callback routine that is associated with a hash-valued option will
now have both the hask key and the value passed. It used to get only
the value passed.
* Eliminated the use of autoloading. Autoloading kept generating
problems during development, and when using perlcc.
* Avoid errors on references when an option is found in error, e.g.
GetOptions('fo$@#' => \$var).
Thanks to Wolfgang Laun <Wolfgang.Laun@alcatel.at>.
* When an option is specified more than once, an error is now
generated. E.g., GetOptions('foo', 'foo').
Thanks to Wolfgang Laun <Wolfgang.Laun@alcatel.at>.
* Lots of internal restructoring to make room for extensions.
* Redesigned the regression tests.
* Enhance the documentation to prevent common misunderstandings about
single character options.
Changes in version 2.26
-----------------------
* New option type: 'o'. It accepts all kinds of integral numbers in
Perl style, including decimal (24), octal (012), hexadecimal (0x2f)
and binary (0b1001).
* Fix problem with getopt_compat not matching +foo=bar.
* Remove $VERSION_STRING for production versions.
Changes in version 2.25
-----------------------
* Change handling of a lone "-" on the command line. It will now be
treated as a non-option unless an explicit specification was passed
to GetOptions. See the manual.
In the old implementation an error was signalled, so no
compatibility breaks are expected from this change.
* Add $VERSION_STRING. This is the string form of $VERSION. Usually
they are identical, unless it is a pre-release in which case
$VERSION will be (e.g.) 2.2403 and $VERSION_STRING will be "2.24_03".
Changes in version 2.24
-----------------------
* Add object oriented interface:
use Getopt::Long;
$p = new Getopt::Long::Parser;
$p->configure(...configuration options...);
if ($p->getoptions(...options descriptions...)) ...
* Add configuration at 'use' time:
use Getopt::Long qw(:config no_ignore_case bundling);
* Add configuration options "gnu_getopt" and "gnu_compat".
"gnu_compat" controls whether --opt= is allowed, and what it should
do. Without "gnu_compat", --opt= gives an error. With "gnu_compat",
--opt= will give option "opt" and empty value.
This is the way GNU getopt_long does it.
"gnu_getopt" is a short way of setting "gnu_compat bundling permute
no_getopt_compat. With "gnu_getopt", command line handling should be
fully compatible with GNU getopt_long.
* Correct warnings when the user specified an array or hash
destination using a non-lowercase option, e.g. "I=s@".
* Correct ambiguous use of 'set' and 'reset' in the Configuration
section of the documentation.
* Add configuration option "posix_default" to reset to defaults as if
POSIXLY_CORRECT were set.
* Disallow "no" prefix on configuration options "default", "prefix" and
"prefix_pattern".
* Add a section "Trouble Shooting" to the documentation, with
frequently asked questions.
Changes in version 2.23
-----------------------
* When a call-back routine issues 'die', messages starting with "!"
are treated specially. Currently, only "!FINISH" is recognised (see
the next bullet point). Other messages that start with "!" are
ignored.
* Change 'die("FINISH") (see changes in 2.21) to die("!FINISH"). This
is an incompatible change, but I guess noone is using this yet.
Changes in version 2.22
-----------------------
* Fixes a bug in the combination of aliases and negation.
Old: "foo|bar!" allowed negation on foo, but not on bar.
New: "foo|bar!" allows negation on foo and bar.
Caveat: "foo|f!", with bundling, issues the warning that negation on
a short option is ignored. To obtain the desired behaviour, use
"foo!" => \$opt_foo, "f" => \$opt_foo
or
"foo|f" => \$opt_foo, "nofoo" => sub { $opt_foo = 0 }
Remember that this is _only_ required when bundling is in effect.
Changes in version 2.21
-----------------------
* New documentation.
* User defined subroutines should use 'die' to signal errors.
* User defined subroutines can preliminary terminate options
processing by calling die("FINISH");
* Correct erroneous install of Getopt::Long manpage.
Previous versions seem to install Getopt::GetoptLong instead of
Getopt::Long.
Changes in version 2.20
-----------------------
* Prevent the magic argument "<>" from being interpreted as option
starter characters if it is the first argument passed.
To use the characters "<>" as option starters, pass "><" instead.
* Changed license: Getopt::Long may now also be used under the Perl
Artistic License.
* Changed the file name of the distribution kit from "GetoptLong..."
to "Getopt-Long-..." to match the standards.
Changes in version 2.19
-----------------------
* Fix a warning bug with bundling_override.
There's no version 2.18
-----------------------
Changes in version 2.17
-----------------------
* Getopt::Long::config is renamed Getopt::Long::Configure. The old
name will remain supported without being documented.
* Options can have the specifier '+' to denote that the option value
must be incremented each time the option occurs on the command line.
For example:
my $more = 2;
Getopt::Long::Configure("bundling");
GetOptions ("v+" => \$more);
print STDOUT ("more = $more\n");
will print "more = 3" when called with "-v", "more = 4" when called
with "-vv" (or "-v -v"), and so on.
* Getopt::Long now uses autoloading. This substantially reduces the
resources required to 'use Getopt::Long' (about 100 lines of over
1300 total).
* It is now documented that global option variables like $opt_foo
need to be declared using 'use vars ...' when running under 'use
strict'.
* To install, it is now required to use the official procedure:
perl Makefile.PL
make
make test
make install
Changes in version 2.16
-----------------------
* A couple of small additional fixes to the $` $& $' fixes.
* The option prefix can be set using config("prefix=...") or, more
powerful, with config("prefix_pattern=..."); see the documentation
for details.
* More 'perl -w' warnings eliminated for obscure cases of bundling.
This version is identical to 2.15, which was not released.
There's no version 2.14
-----------------------
Changes in version 2.13
-----------------------
* All regexps are changed to avoid the use of $`, $& and $'. Using one
of these causes all pattern matches in the program to be much slower
than necessary.
* Configuration errors are signalled using die() and will cause the
program to be terminated (unless eval{...} or $SIG{__DIE__} is
used).
* Option parsing errors are now signalled with calls to warn().
* In option bundles, numeric values may be embedded in the bundle
(e.g. -al24w80).
* More 'perl -w' warnings eliminated for obscure cases of bundling.
* Removed non-standard version number matching. Version 1.121 is now
more than 1.12 but less than 1.13.
Changes in version 2.12
-----------------------
* A single question mark is allowed as an alias to an option, e.g.
GetOptions ("help|?", ...)
Changes in version 2.11
-----------------------
* User linkage may be an object, provided the object is really a hash.
For example:
{ package Foo;
sub new () { return bless {}; }
}
my $linkage = Foo->new();
GetOptions ($linkage, ... );
* Some bug fixes in handling obscure cases of pass-through.
Changes in version 2.9
----------------------
* A new way to configure Getopt::Long. Instead of setting module local
variables, routine Getopt::Long::config can be called with the names
of options to be set or reset, e.g.
Getopt::Long::config ("no_auto_abbrev", "ignore_case");
Configuring by using the module local variables is deprecated, but
it will continue to work for backwark compatibility.
Changes in version 2.6
----------------------
* Handle ignorecase even if autoabbrev is off.
* POD corrections.
Changes in version 2.4
----------------------
* Pass-through of unrecognized options. Makes it easy to write wrapper
programs that process some of the command line options but pass the
others to another program.
* Options can be of type HASH, now you can say
--define foo=bar
and have $opt_define{"foo"} set to "bar".
* An enhanced skeleton program, skel2.pl, that combines the power of
Getopt::Long with Pod::Usage.
Module Pod::Usage can be obtained from CPAN,
http://www.perl.com/CPAN/authors/Brad_Appleton.
Possible incompatibility in version 2.4
---------------------------------------
Previous versions of Getopt::Long always downcased the option variable
names when ignorecase was in effect. This bug has been corrected. As a
consequence, &GetOptions ("Foo") will now set variable $opt_Foo
instead of $opt_foo.