This package provides a set of C functions for parsing input strings. Default parsing rules are are similar to those used in Bourne shell. This includes tilde expansion, variable expansion, quote removal, word splitting, command substitution, and path expansion. Parsing is controlled by a number of settings which allow the caller to alter processing at each of these phases or even to disable any of them. Thus, wordsplit can be used for parsing inputs in different formats, from simple character-delimited entries, as in /etc/passwd, and up to complex shell statements.