Linux bash shell options parsing

Normally, command line parameters come in as separate, positional values, and may be referenced as:

• $# - the number of command line arguments (positional parameters)
• $* - all positional parameters expressed as a single string
• $@ - all positional parameters, but with each as a quoted string (each positional parameter is intact and presented as a quoted string)
• $0 - (the base name of the script itself)
• $1 - The first positional parameter
• $2 - The second positional parameter, and $3, $4, etc.  Starting with 10, they must be expressed as ${10}, ${11}, etc.

Sometimes a variable is passed from a wrapper script to a child script where the positional parameter is in fact several parameters that should be parsed separately.

Here, we test for that case, and if found, we peel off the first parameter within that group of strings, and assign the remaining parameters in the group of springs:

# from the front, and make the rest of the data be the options passed to rsync.
if [ $# -eq 1 ]; then
{
   Params=($1)
   PARAM_1=${Params[0]}
   unset Params[0]
   ChildCommandOpts=${Params[*]}
} fi