Shell-style argument parsing

Author(s): Jose F. Morales.

This module implements shell-style argument parsing. This is useful for parsing argument strings from other tools (e.g., those returned by pkg-config) and using them in calls to process_call/3 (without using a full shell interpreter).

It offers a parse_shell_args/2 predicate that splits a single input into a list of arguments, following these rules:

arguments are separated by blanks (whitespaces or tabulators)
arguments may contain double and single quoted substrings (quotes are removed)
blanks are not separators when they appear in quoted strings
escape character removes special meaning from blank or quote characters

Note that this library is not intended to do full shell parsing (command or variable substitutions, etc.).

Usage and interface

Library usage:
:- use_module(library(parse_shell_args)).
Exports:
- Predicates:
  parse_shell_args/2.

Documentation on exports

PREDICATEparse_shell_args/2

Usage:parse_shell_args(Atm,Args)

Parse shell-style arguments from atom Atm into Args

Call and exit should be compatible with:
(basic_props:atm/1)Atm is an atom.
(basic_props:list/2)Args is a list of atms.
The following properties should hold at call time:
(term_typing:nonvar/1)Atm is currently a term which is not a free variable.
(term_typing:var/1)Args is a free variable.

Documentation on imports

This module has the following direct dependencies:

Packages:
prelude, initial, condcomp, assertions, assertions/assertions_basic, dcg, regtypes, isomodes.