Are there good Java libraries that facilitate building command-line applications? [closed]

Answer 1

I've used the Apache Commons CLI library for command-line argument parsing. It's fairly easy to use and has reasonably good documentation.

Which library you choose probably comes down to which style of options you prefer ("--gnu-style" or "-javac-style").

Answer 2

I tried a few libraries and ended up using argparse4j. It's a really nice Java port of Python's argparse.

Answer 3

I have used the Java Simple Argument Parser extensively. It handles all sorts of option types, has a well-designed and library (including the option to write custom parsers), and provides good documentation both in the JavaDocs and online.

I think your desire for tab completion would be taken care of by the shell rather than the command-line parsing library.

Answer 4

It's also worth looking at --jopt-simple.

It 'attempts to honor the command line option syntaxes of POSIX getopt() and GNU getopt_long().' It seems to have some community traction, notably being the command line parsing lib of choice for the OpenJDK.

Also, as Brett mentioned, tab completion is typically provided by your shell - you would write shell functions to provide that desired functionality.

p.s. Sorry for the duplicate answer, but this question is almost identical to Java library for parsing command-line parameters?

Answer 5

There is a Java port of GNU getopt library for command line parsing. For command editing and TAB completion there is JLine (as mmyers has already recommended).

Answer 6

I have used JSAP. I have found it to be stable and well documented.

I am not sure I understand what you mean by "built-in TAB completion". Can you elaborate.