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Remko Popma edited this page Apr 15, 2019 · 36 revisions

3 Reasons to Use picocli

designed to be included as source

...because your users don't want the extra jar file just to parse command line options.

easily tailored usage help with Ansi colors and styles

...because the usage help is the face of your command line interface.

autocomplete for your command line application

...so users of your application can just press <TAB> to see the available options and subcommands.

30 more reasons to use picocli

  • runs on Java 5 or higher (tested on Java 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13ea)
  • annotation API - almost no code
  • programmatic API - for dynamic configuration
  • runs on GraalVM - for extremely fast startup
  • git-style subcommands
  • nested sub-subcommands
  • strongly typed option parameters
  • strongly typed positional parameters
  • many, many built-in types
  • easily add custom type converters
  • interactive password options
  • supports multi-value options
  • supports Maps for options and positional parameters (like -Dkey=value Java system properties)
  • intuitive model for how many arguments an option consumes
  • fluent API
  • convenience methods for Runnable and Callable @Command classes
  • or easily run @Command methods
  • supports both mixins and subclassing for reuse
  • built-in support for standard --help and --version options (zero code)
  • built-in help subcommand
  • uses STDERR for error messages, STDOUT for requested help by default
  • allows any option prefix
  • POSIX-style clustered short options
  • highly configurable parser
  • parser tracing to facilitate troubleshooting
  • quality documentation
  • built-in Groovy script support
  • easily integrates with Dependency Injection containers
  • easily integrates with JLine 2 and JLine 3 to create interactive shell applications