1<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> 2<!DOCTYPE library PUBLIC "-//Boost//DTD BoostBook XML V1.0//EN" 3 "http://www.boost.org/tools/boostbook/dtd/boostbook.dtd"> 4<library 5 name="Program_options" 6 dirname="program_options" id="program_options" 7 last-revision="$Date$" 8 xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"> 9 <libraryinfo> 10 <author> 11 <firstname>Vladimir</firstname> 12 <surname>Prus</surname> 13 </author> 14 15 <copyright> 16 <year>2002</year> 17 <year>2003</year> 18 <year>2004</year> 19 <holder>Vladimir Prus</holder> 20 </copyright> 21 22 <legalnotice> 23 <para>Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. 24 (See accompanying file <filename>LICENSE_1_0.txt</filename> or copy at 25 <ulink 26 url="http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt">http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt</ulink>) 27 </para> 28 </legalnotice> 29 30 31 <librarypurpose> 32 Facilities to obtain configuration data from command line, config files 33 and other sources</librarypurpose> 34 <librarycategory name="category:data-structures"></librarycategory> 35 </libraryinfo> 36 37 <title>Boost.Program_options</title> 38 39 <section> 40 <title>Introduction</title> 41 42 <para>The program_options library allows program developers to obtain 43 <emphasis>program options</emphasis>, that is (name, value) pairs from the user, 44 via conventional methods such as command line and config file.</para> 45 46 <para>Why would you use such a library, and why is it better than parsing 47 your command line by straightforward hand-written code? 48 <itemizedlist> 49 <listitem> 50 <para>It's easier. The syntax for declaring options is simple, and 51 the library itself is small. Things like conversion of option values to 52 desired type and storing into program variables are handled 53 automatically. 54 </para> 55 </listitem> 56 <listitem> 57 <para>Error reporting is better. All the problems with the command line are 58 reported, while hand-written code can just misparse the input. In 59 addition, the usage message can be automatically generated, to 60 avoid falling out of sync with the real list of options.</para> 61 </listitem> 62 <listitem> 63 <para>Options can be read from anywhere. Sooner or later the command 64 line will be not enough for your users, and you'll want config files 65 or maybe even environment variables. These can be added without significant 66 effort on your part. 67 </para> 68 </listitem> 69 </itemizedlist> 70 </para> 71 72 <para> 73 Now let's see some examples of the library usage in the <xref 74 linkend="program_options.tutorial"/>. 75 </para> 76 77 </section> 78 79 <xi:include href="tutorial.xml"/> 80 <xi:include href="overview.xml"/> 81 82 <xi:include href="howto.xml"/> 83 <xi:include href="design.xml"/> 84 <xi:include href="acknowledgements.xml"/> 85 86 <xi:include href="autodoc.xml"/> 87</library> 88