> (e.g. "get the argument immediately after '-f'") Is there a language commonly used for cli tools that doesn't have an inbuilt options lib? Even bash has inbu

> (e.g. "get the argument immediately after '-f'") Is there a language commonly used for cli tools that doesn't have an inbuilt options lib? Even bash has inbuilt 'getopts' to handle this for you. while getopts "ab:" option; do case $option in a) VAR="foo";; b) VAR2="$OPTARG";; esac done shift $((OPTIND-1)) which will allow you to "myscript -a -b myarg" By all means, use env vars if it works for you, but it should be right tool for the right job. Imagine trying to use 'ls' with env vars...