Index: example.c
===================================================================
--- example.c	(revision 28449)
+++ example.c	(revision 28450)
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
 	while(fgets(s, sizeof(s), stdin) != NULL) {
 		int n, argc;
 		char *end, **argv;
+		size_t cons = 424242;
 
 		/* remove trailing newline (if we don't we just get an extra empty field at the end) */
 		for(end = s + strlen(s) - 1; (end >= s) && ((*end == '\r') || (*end == '\n')); end--)
@@ -17,10 +18,11 @@
 
 		/* split and print fields */
 		printf("Splitting '%s':\n", s);
-		argc = qparse2(s, &argv, QPARSE_DOUBLE_QUOTE | QPARSE_SINGLE_QUOTE);
+		argc = qparse3(s, &argv, QPARSE_DOUBLE_QUOTE | QPARSE_SINGLE_QUOTE, &cons);
 		for(n = 0; n < argc; n++)
 			printf(" [%d] '%s'\n", n, argv[n]);
 		qparse_free(argc, &argv);
+		printf("consumed: %ld bytes\n", cons);
 	}
 	return 0;
 }
Index: qparse.c
===================================================================
--- qparse.c	(revision 28449)
+++ qparse.c	(revision 28450)
@@ -67,7 +67,7 @@
 		buff_used = 0; \
 	}
 
-int qparse2(const char *input, char **argv_ret[], flags_t flg)
+int qparse3(const char *input, char **argv_ret[], flags_t flg, size_t *consumed_out)
 {
 	int argc;
 	int allocated;
@@ -178,10 +178,17 @@
 	if (buff != NULL)
 		free(buff);
 
+	if (consumed_out != NULL)
+		*consumed_out = s-input;
 	*argv_ret = argv;
 	return argc;
 }
 
+int qparse2(const char *input, char **argv_ret[], flags_t flg)
+{
+	return qparse3(input, argv_ret, flg, NULL);
+}
+
 int qparse(const char *input, char **argv_ret[])
 {
 	return qparse2(input, argv_ret, QPARSE_DOUBLE_QUOTE);
Index: qparse.h
===================================================================
--- qparse.h	(revision 28449)
+++ qparse.h	(revision 28450)
@@ -20,3 +20,6 @@
 
 int qparse2(const char *input, char **argv_ret[], flags_t flg);
 
+/* This variant returns the number of characters consumed from the input
+   so it can be used for multi-command parsing */
+int qparse3(const char *input, char **argv_ret[], flags_t flg, size_t *consumed_out);