Created SC2220 (markdown)

koalaman
2017-09-16 13:02:58 -07:00
parent 08c2236098
commit 8d813e4764

41
SC2220.md Normal file

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## Invalid flags are not handled. Add a `*)` case.
### Problematic code:
```sh
#!/bin/sh
while getopts "vr" f
do
case "$f" in
v) echo "verbose" ;;
r) echo "recursive" ;;
esac
done
```
### Correct code:
```sh
#!/bin/sh
while getopts "vr" f
do
case "$f" in
v) echo "verbose" ;;
r) echo "recursive" ;;
*) echo "usage: $0 [-v] [-r]" >&2
exit 1 ;;
esac
done
```
### Rationale:
The `case` statement handling `getopts` arguments does not have a default branch to handle unknown flags.
When a flag is not recognized, such as if passing `-Z` to the example code, `getopts` will set the variable to a literal question mark `?`. This should be handled along with all the valid flags, usually by printing a usage message and exiting with failure.
Using a `\?)` or `?)` case will also match invalid flags, but`*)` would additionally match things like the empty string if the variable name was misspelled.
### Exceptions:
If your script's logic handles unrecognized flags in another way, e.g. after the `case` statement, you can ignore this warning.