Changing how 'main' parameters are interpreted

Hi everyone,

I've written a function that searches a file for a string. The way it works is that I type in the function name and then the arguments are the string and filename. For example when I execute the program I'll do something like:

./program joe filename.txt

where program is my executable program
joe is the string to be found
filename.txt is the file to be searched

However, if I put ( for the string to be found, the result is a message displayed at execution time saying: "Too many ('s."

Does anyone know how I can modify my program so that if I put ( as the string to be searched it'll search for the character ( rather than interpreting it as an unclosed parathesis?

Note: I want to be able to write it as ( when I try to execute my program, it's not in the command line that I want to change it..

Thanks,

Canadian0469

No, because your program is never run. Your OS can't figure out what you are trying to do.

Actually, I think what is happening is Canadian's shell is intercepting the (, and doesn't know what to do with it; and they were hoping that they could fix that from within their program.

The answer is that you can't. You'll have to escape the ( or put it in quotes or something, like this:

Code:

---

$ ./program \( file.txt
$ ./program '(' file.txt

---

Alternatively, of course, you could have an option where it reads a file for the pattern to search for. Then if you supported '-' as a synonym for stdin, you could use

Code:

---

$ ./program -f - file.txt
(
^D
$

---

or something.

I could have it all wrong and my idea that it is the shell could be mistaken, but that's my take on it.

Alright thanks for the quick replies guys.

That's all I need to know. It's because my prof wanted to put ( as a test case but he didn't say what the output is supposed to be so I was wondering if the error is what he expects or not.

I was thinking the same thing as you but just wanted to confirm my suspicions.

Thanks again.

Canadian0469