Command Line Arguments in C

Creating terminal applications in C often relies on command line arguments.

Arguments

The main function of a C program takes in two arguments to handle command line arguments:

int main (int argc, char *argv[])
{
  ...
}

argc is the number (count) of arguments provided, including the executable name. argv is the array of arguments, with item 0 being the name of the executable.

Example

This example uses ncurses. It should print out all arguments you provide beyond the executable and wait for user entry before exiting.

showargs.c

#include <string.h>
#include <ncurses.h>

int main (int argc, char *argv[])
{
    char task[255];

    initscr();

    if (argc == 1)
    {
        addstr("No arguments provided.");
        getch();

        endwin();
        return 0;
    }
    else
    {
        strcpy(task, argv[1]);

        for (int i = 2; i < argc; i++)
        {
          strcat(task, " ");
          strcat(task, argv[i]);
        }
        printw("%s", task);
        getch();

        endwin();
        return 0;
    }
}

Compilation

$ gcc -lncurses showargs.c -o showargs

Executing

$ ./showargs You can print all of these out
# Will display "You can print all of these out"

References

Last modified: 202401040446