How can I add a help method to a shell script?

here’s an example for bash:

usage="$(basename "$0") [-h] [-s n] -- program to calculate the answer to life, the universe and everything

where:
    -h  show this help text
    -s  set the seed value (default: 42)"

seed=42
while getopts ':hs:' option; do
  case "$option" in
    h) echo "$usage"
       exit
       ;;
    s) seed=$OPTARG
       ;;
    :) printf "missing argument for -%s\n" "$OPTARG" >&2
       echo "$usage" >&2
       exit 1
       ;;
   \?) printf "illegal option: -%s\n" "$OPTARG" >&2
       echo "$usage" >&2
       exit 1
       ;;
  esac
done
shift $((OPTIND - 1))

To use this inside a function:

• use "$FUNCNAME" instead of $(basename "$0")
• add local OPTIND OPTARG before calling getopts