Passing std::string as input to getopt() - c++

Question

I have a program that basically looks like this:
#include <iostream>
#include <unistd.h> // getopt
#include <vector>
#include <string>
#include <list>
#include <sstream>
using namespace std;
//a parameter structure to store parameters provided through console
typedef struct pairwise_param {
double alpha;
double beta;
} param;
//parse the parameter values
void param_getopt(param *pm, int argc, char **argv) {
int opt;
while((opt = getopt(argc, argv, "a:b:")) != -1) {
switch(opt) {
case 'a':
pm->alpha = atof(optarg);
break;
case 'b':
pm->beta = atof(optarg);
break;
}
}
}
int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {
//initialize param structure
param pm;
//pass command line arguments to param
param_getopt(&pm, argc, argv);
//do something to the parameters
std::cout << "Alpha: " << pm.alpha << std::endl;
std::cout << "Beta: " << pm.beta << std::endl;
return(0);
}
By making a header file and changing the main function to someother name, e.g. int main(int argc, char* argv[]) -> int maincomp(int argc, char* argv[]) I want to call the new function maincomp() from another program but instead of passing command line arguments I want to pass the arguments through a std::string.
I thought I could do something like this but it does seem to have some issues with getopt() that Im not entirely certain why. Currently anything that is written to console using for example std::cout after getopt() is called will not be displayed. It looks like what is passed to getopt() currently is not correctly type converted. My question therefore is how should one type cast a std::string to conform to the char * const argv[] input requirement of getopt(int argc, char * const argv[])?
int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {
//create string and pass it to maincomp
std::string cmd = "-a2.3 -b3.2";
std::istringstream ss(cmd);
std::string arg;
std::list<std::string> ls;
std::vector<char*> newargv;
while (ss >> arg) {
ls.push_back(arg);
newargv.push_back(const_cast<char*>(ls.back().c_str()));
}
newargv.push_back(0);
int out = maincomp(newargv.size(), &newargv[0]);
return(out);
}
The entire code:
https://onlinegdb.com/tjMC-LwiP

Answer 1

Using wordsexp.h solved the issue by parsing the string correctly for getopt().
Essentially:
//create string and pass it to maincomp
std::string cmd = "-a2.3 -b3.2";
//convert string with wordexp
wordexp_t newargv;
newargv.we_offs = 1;
wordexp(cmd.c_str(), &newargv, WRDE_DOOFFS);
//create a new argc
int newargc = newargv.we_wordc + newargv.we_offs;
//pass to maincomp function
int out = maincomp(newargc, newargv.we_wordv);
Full code:
#include <iostream>
#include <unistd.h> // getopt
#include <vector>
#include <string>
#include <wordexp.h>
typedef struct pairwise_param {
double alpha; double beta;
} param;
void param_getopt(param *pm, int argc, char **argv){
int opt;
while((opt=getopt(argc,argv,"a:b:"))!=-1){
switch(opt){
case 'a': pm->alpha = atof(optarg); break;
case 'b': pm->beta = atof(optarg); break;
}
}
}
int maincomp(int argc, char* argv[]){
//initialize param structure
param pm;
//pass command line arguments to param
param_getopt(&pm, argc, argv);
std::cout << "Alpha: " << pm.alpha << std::endl;
std::cout << "Beta: " << pm.beta << std::endl;
return(0);
}
int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {
//create string and pass it to maincomp
std::string cmd = "-a2.3 -b3.2";
//convert string with wordexp
wordexp_t newargv;
newargv.we_offs = 1;
wordexp(cmd.c_str(), &newargv, WRDE_DOOFFS);
int newargc = newargv.we_wordc+newargv.we_offs;
//pass to maincomp function
int out = maincomp(newargc, newargv.we_wordv);
return(out);
}
Produces the expected output:
Alpha: 2.3
Beta: 3.2