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Programmatic API
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For most applications the annotations API is a better fit than the programmatic API: the annotation syntax is more compact, easier to read, and easier to maintain. See this introductory article and for more details, the user manual. |
Picocli 3.0 offers a programmatic API for creating command line applications, in addition to annotations. The programmatic API allows applications to dynamically create command line options on the fly, and also makes it possible to create idiomatic domain-specific languages for processing command line arguments, using picocli, in other JVM languages.
CommandSpec spec = CommandSpec.create();
spec.mixinStandardHelpOptions(true); // usageHelp and versionHelp options
spec.add(OptionSpec.builder("-c", "--count")
.paramLabel("COUNT")
.type(int.class)
.description("number of times to execute").build());
spec.add(PositionalParamSpec.builder()
.paramLabel("FILES")
.type(List.class)
.auxiliaryTypes(File.class) // List<File>
.description("The files to process").build());
CommandLine commandLine = new CommandLine(spec);
commandLine.parseWithSimpleHandlers(new AbstractSimpleParseResultHandler() {
public void process(ParseResult pr) {
int count = pr.optionValue('c', 1);
List<File> files = pr.positionalValue(0, Collections.<File>emptyList());
for (int i = 0; i < count; i++) {
for (File f : files) {
System.out.printf("%d: %s%n", i, f);
}
}
}
}, args);The following classes are the main model classes used to configure the parser:
-
CommandSpec -
OptionSpec -
PositionalParamSpec
CommandSpec models a command. It has a name and a version, both of which may be empty. It also has a UsageMessageSpec to configure aspects of the usage help message, and a ParserSpec where the behaviour of the parser can be controlled to some extent. For example:
CommandSpec cmd = CommandSpec.create();
cmd.name("mycommand")
.version("My Command v1.0")
.usageMessage()
.descriptionHeading("Description heading%n")
.description("description line 1", "description line 2")
.footerHeading("Footer heading%n")
.footer("footer line 1", "footer line 2")
.headerHeading("Header heading%n")
.header("header line 1", "header line 2")
.optionListHeading("Options%n")
.parameterListHeading("Positional Parameters%n");
cmd.parser()
.unmatchedArgumentsAllowed(true)
.overwrittenOptionsAllowed(true);CommandSpec has methods to add options (OptionSpec objects) and positional parameters (PositionalParamSpec objects). A CommandSpec can be mixed in with another CommandSpec, so its options, positional parameters and usage help attributes are merged into the other CommandSpec.
CommandSpec standardHelpOptions = CommandSpec.create()
.add(OptionSpec.builder("-h", "--help")
.usageHelp(true)
.description("Show this help message and exit.").build())
.add(OptionSpec.builder("-V", "--version")
.versionHelp(true)
.description("Print version information and exit.").build());
CommandSpec cmd = CommandSpec.create()
.name("mycommand")
.addMixin("standardHelpOptions", standardHelpOptions);Finally, CommandSpec objects can be subcommands of other CommandSpecs. There is no limit to the depth of a hierarchy of command and subcommands. CommandSpec also allows registration of type converters that are used while parsing the command line arguments to convert a command line argument string to the strongly typed value of a OptionSpec or PositionalParamSpec
CommandSpec helpSubcommand = CommandSpec.forAnnotatedObject(new picocli.CommandLine.HelpCommand());
CommandSpec cmd = CommandSpec.create()
.name("mycommand")
.addSubcommand("help", helpCommand);OptionSpec models a command option. An OptionSpec must have at least one name, which is used during parsing to match command line arguments. Other attributes can be left empty and picocli will give them a reasonable default value. This defaulting is why OptionSpec objects are created with a builder: this allows you to specify only some attributes and let picocli initialise the other attributes. For example, if only the option’s name is specified, picocli assumes the option takes no parameters (arity = 0), and is of type boolean. Another example, if arity is larger than 1, picocli sets the type to List and the auxiliary type to String.
Once an OptionSpec is constructed, its configuration becomes immutable, but its value can still be modified. Usually the value is set during command line parsing when a command line argument matches one of the option names.
The value is set via a binding. We’ll come back to bindings later in this document.
Similar to the annotation API, OptionSpec objects have help, usageHelp and versionHelp attributes. When the parser matches an option that was marked with any of these attributes, it will no longer validate that all required arguments exist. See the section below on the parseWithHandler(s) and parseWithSimpleHandler(s) methods that automatically print help when requested.
PositionalParamSpec objects don’t have names, but have an index range instead. A single PositionalParamSpec object can capture multiple positional parameters. The default index range is set to 0..* (all indices). A command may have multiple PositionalParamSpec objects to capture positional parameters at different index ranges. This can be useful if positional parameters at different index ranges have different data types.
Similar to OptionSpec objects, Once a PositionalParamSpec is constructed, its configuration becomes immutable, but its value can still be modified. Usually the value is set during command line parsing when a non-option command line argument is encountered at a position in its index range.
The value is set via a binding. We’ll look at bindings next.
The ParseResult class…
The most basic way to parse the command line is to call the CommandLine::parseArgs method and inspect the resulting ParseResult object.
For example:
CommandSpec spec = CommandSpec.create();
// add options and positional parameters
CommandLine commandLine = new CommandLine(spec);
try {
ParseResult pr = commandLine.parseArgs(args);
if (CommandLine.printHelpIfRequested(pr)) {
return;
}
int count = pr.optionValue('c', 1);
List<File> files = pr.positionalValue(0, Collections.<File>emptyList());
for (int i = 0; i < count; i++) {
for (File f : files) {
System.out.printf("%d: %s%n", i, f);
}
}
} catch (ParseException invalidInput) {
System.err.println(invalidInput.getMessage());
invalidInput.getCommandLine().usage(System.err);
}There are a number of parseWithHandler convenience methods to reduce some boilerplate when processing the ParseResult programmatically. The convenience methods take care of printing help when requested by the user, and handle invalid input.
Call the parseWithSimpleHandler method with a AbstractSimpleParseResultHandler subclass to process the parse result without returning a result value. Note the absence of error handling and checking of whether the user requested help. The process method contains only your business logic.
Example:
CommandSpec spec = CommandSpec.create();
// add options and positional parameters
CommandLine commandLine = new CommandLine(spec);
commandLine.parseWithSimpleHandler(new AbstractSimpleParseResultHandler() {
public void process(ParseResult pr) {
int count = pr.optionValue('c', 1);
List<File> files = pr.positionalValue(0, Collections.<File>emptyList());
for (int i = 0; i < count; i++) {
for (File f : files) {
System.out.printf("%d: %s%n", i, f);
}
}
}
}, args);A variation of this method, parseWithSimpleHandlers, additionally takes an IExceptionHandler2<Void> to customize how invalid input should be handled and optionally set an exit code for when the input was invalid.
Example:
CommandSpec spec = CommandSpec.create();
// add options and positional parameters
CommandLine commandLine = new CommandLine(spec);
commandLine.parseWithSimpleHandlers(new AbstractSimpleParseResultHandler() {
public void process(ParseResult pr) {...}
}.useOut(System.out).andExit(123),
new DefaultExceptionHandler<Void>().andExit(567),
args);It is possible for the parse result processing logic to return a result. To accomplish this, call the CommandLine::parseWithHandler method with a class that extends AbstractParseResultHandler and a prototype return value. The process method may return a completely different return value object (as long as it has the correct type) or it can modify the return value object that was passed in to the parseWithHandler method.
Example:
CommandSpec spec = CommandSpec.create();
// add options and positional parameters
CommandLine commandLine = new CommandLine(spec);
class MyResult {
List<File> files = new ArrayList<File>();
}
class MyHandler extends AbstractParseResultHandler<MyResult> {
public MyResult process(ParseResult pr, MyResult returnValue) {
int count = pr.optionValue('c', 1);
List<File> files = pr.positionalValue(pr.positionalParams().get(0), Collections.<File>emptyList());
for (File f : files) {
for (int i = 0; i < count; i++) {
returnValue.files.add(f);
}
}
return returnValue;
}
protected MyHandler self() { return this; }
}
MyResult result = commandLine.parseWithHandler(new MyHandler(), new MyResult(), args);
// do something with result...This method also has a variation, parseWithHandlers, which additionally takes an IExceptionHandler2<MyResult> to customize how invalid input should be handled and optionally set an exit code.
Example:
CommandSpec spec = CommandSpec.create();
// add options and positional parameters
CommandLine commandLine = new CommandLine(spec);
MyResult result = commandLine.parseWithHandler(
new MyHandler().useOut(System.out).andExit(123),
new MyResult(),
new DefaultExceptionHandler<MyResult>().andExit(567),
args);
// do something with result...