Best way to parse command-line parameters? [closed]

Answer 1

Command Line Interface Scala Toolkit (CLIST)

here is mine too! (a bit late in the game though)

https://github.com/backuity/clist

As opposed to scopt it is entirely mutable... but wait! That gives us a pretty nice syntax:

class Cat extends Command(description = "concatenate files and print on the standard output") {

  // type-safety: members are typed! so showAll is a Boolean
  var showAll        = opt[Boolean](abbrev = "A", description = "equivalent to -vET")
  var numberNonblank = opt[Boolean](abbrev = "b", description = "number nonempty output lines, overrides -n")

  // files is a Seq[File]
  var files          = args[Seq[File]](description = "files to concat")
}

And a simple way to run it:

Cli.parse(args).withCommand(new Cat) { case cat =>
    println(cat.files)
}

You can do a lot more of course (multi-commands, many configuration options, ...) and has no dependency.

I'll finish with a kind of distinctive feature, the default usage (quite often neglected for multi commands):

Answer 2

freecli

package freecli
package examples
package command

import java.io.File

import freecli.core.all._
import freecli.config.all._
import freecli.command.all._

object Git extends App {

  case class CommitConfig(all: Boolean, message: String)
  val commitCommand =
    cmd("commit") {
      takesG[CommitConfig] {
        O.help --"help" ::
        flag --"all" -'a' -~ des("Add changes from all known files") ::
        O.string -'m' -~ req -~ des("Commit message")
      } ::
      runs[CommitConfig] { config =>
        if (config.all) {
          println(s"Commited all ${config.message}!")
        } else {
          println(s"Commited ${config.message}!")
        }
      }
    }

  val rmCommand =
    cmd("rm") {
      takesG[File] {
        O.help --"help" ::
        file -~ des("File to remove from git")
      } ::
      runs[File] { f =>
        println(s"Removed file ${f.getAbsolutePath} from git")
      }
    }

  val remoteCommand =
   cmd("remote") {
     takes(O.help --"help") ::
     cmd("add") {
       takesT {
         O.help --"help" ::
         string -~ des("Remote name") ::
         string -~ des("Remote url")
       } ::
       runs[(String, String)] {
         case (s, u) => println(s"Remote $s $u added")
       }
     } ::
     cmd("rm") {
       takesG[String] {
         O.help --"help" ::
         string -~ des("Remote name")
       } ::
       runs[String] { s =>
         println(s"Remote $s removed")
       }
     }
   }

  val git =
    cmd("git", des("Version control system")) {
      takes(help --"help" :: version --"version" -~ value("v1.0")) ::
      commitCommand ::
      rmCommand ::
      remoteCommand
    }

  val res = runCommandOrFail(git)(args).run
}

This will generate the following usage:

Usage

Answer 3

There's also JCommander (disclaimer: I created it):

object Main {
  object Args {
    @Parameter(
      names = Array("-f", "--file"),
      description = "File to load. Can be specified multiple times.")
    var file: java.util.List[String] = null
  }

  def main(args: Array[String]): Unit = {
    new JCommander(Args, args.toArray: _*)
    for (filename <- Args.file) {
      val f = new File(filename)
      printf("file: %s\n", f.getName)
    }
  }
}

Answer 4

I'd suggest to use http://docopt.org/. There's a scala-port but the Java implementation https://github.com/docopt/docopt.java works just fine and seems to be better maintained. Here's an example:

import org.docopt.Docopt

import scala.collection.JavaConversions._
import scala.collection.JavaConverters._

val doc =
"""
Usage: my_program [options] <input>

Options:
 --sorted   fancy sorting
""".stripMargin.trim

//def args = "--sorted test.dat".split(" ").toList
var results = new Docopt(doc).
  parse(args()).
  map {case(key, value)=>key ->value.toString}

val inputFile = new File(results("<input>"))
val sorted = results("--sorted").toBoolean

Answer 5

Here is mine 1-liner

    def optArg(prefix: String) = args.drop(3).find { _.startsWith(prefix) }.map{_.replaceFirst(prefix, "")}
    def optSpecified(prefix: String) = optArg(prefix) != None
    def optInt(prefix: String, default: Int) = optArg(prefix).map(_.toInt).getOrElse(default)

It drops 3 mandatory arguments and gives out the options. Integers are specified like notorious -Xmx<size> java option, jointly with the prefix. You can parse binaries and integers as simple as

val cacheEnabled = optSpecified("cacheOff")
val memSize = optInt("-Xmx", 1000)

No need to import anything.

Answer 6

I've attempted generalize @pjotrp's solution by taking in a list of required positional key symbols, a map of flag -> key symbol and default options:

def parseOptions(args: List[String], required: List[Symbol], optional: Map[String, Symbol], options: Map[Symbol, String]): Map[Symbol, String] = {
  args match {
    // Empty list
    case Nil => options

    // Keyword arguments
    case key :: value :: tail if optional.get(key) != None =>
      parseOptions(tail, required, optional, options ++ Map(optional(key) -> value))

    // Positional arguments
    case value :: tail if required != Nil =>
      parseOptions(tail, required.tail, optional, options ++ Map(required.head -> value))

    // Exit if an unknown argument is received
    case _ =>
      printf("unknown argument(s): %s\n", args.mkString(", "))
      sys.exit(1)
  }
}

def main(sysargs Array[String]) {
  // Required positional arguments by key in options
  val required = List('arg1, 'arg2)

  // Optional arguments by flag which map to a key in options
  val optional = Map("--flag1" -> 'flag1, "--flag2" -> 'flag2)

  // Default options that are passed in
  var defaultOptions = Map()

  // Parse options based on the command line args
  val options = parseOptions(sysargs.toList, required, optional, defaultOptions)
}