2 files changed, 14 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/otautil/include/otautil/sysutil.h b/otautil/include/otautil/sysutil.h
index 649f8ffae..2eeb7c302 100644
--- a/otautil/include/otautil/sysutil.h
+++ b/otautil/include/otautil/sysutil.h
@@ -54,4 +54,9 @@ class MemMapping {
 // command should start with "reboot," (e.g. "reboot,bootloader" or "reboot,").
 bool reboot(const std::string& command);
 
+// Returns a null-terminated char* array, where the elements point to the C-strings in the given
+// vector, plus an additional nullptr at the end. This is a helper function that facilitates
+// calling C functions (such as getopt(3)) that expect an array of C-strings.
+std::vector<char*> StringVectorToNullTerminatedArray(const std::vector<std::string>& args);
+
 #endif  // _OTAUTIL_SYSUTIL
diff --git a/otautil/sysutil.cpp b/otautil/sysutil.cpp
index ab1513088..d8969a0bb 100644
--- a/otautil/sysutil.cpp
+++ b/otautil/sysutil.cpp
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@
 #include <sys/stat.h>
 #include <sys/types.h>
 
+#include <algorithm>
 #include <string>
 #include <vector>
 
@@ -211,3 +212,11 @@ bool reboot(const std::string& command) {
   }
   return android::base::SetProperty(ANDROID_RB_PROPERTY, cmd);
 }
+
+std::vector<char*> StringVectorToNullTerminatedArray(const std::vector<std::string>& args) {
+  std::vector<char*> result(args.size());
+  std::transform(args.cbegin(), args.cend(), result.begin(),
+                 [](const std::string& arg) { return const_cast<char*>(arg.c_str()); });
+  result.push_back(nullptr);
+  return result;
+}