JSPM

work in progress, draft documentation

#command-line-args A command-line parser and usage-guide producer.. Particularly good at organising large sets of options.

##Install

$ npm install command-line-args --save

##Synopsis the following app.js...

var cliArgs = require("command-line-args");

/* define the command-line options */
var cli = cliArgs([
    { name: "verbose", type: Boolean, alias: "v", description: "Write plenty output" },
    { name: "help", type: Boolean, description: "Print usage instructions" },
    { name: "files", type: Array, defaultOption: true, description: "The input files" }
]);

/* parse the supplied command-line values */
var options = cli.parse();

/* generate a usage guide */
var usage = cli.usage({
    header: "A synopsis application.",
    footer: "For more information, visit http://example.com"
});
    
console.log(options.help ? usage : options);

...returns this output at the command line:

$ node app.js
{}

$ node app.js -v
{ verbose: true }

$ node app.js README.md package.json
{ files: [ 'README.md', 'package.json' ] }

$ node app.js README.md package.json -v
{ verbose: true, files: [ 'README.md', 'package.json' ] }

$ node app.js --help

  A synopsis application.

  Usage

  -v, --verbose    Write plenty output
  --help           Print usage instructions
  --files <array>  The input files

  For more information, visit http://example.com

#API Reference Example

var cliArgs = require("command-line-args");
var cli = cliArgs([
    { name: "help", type: Boolean, alias: "h" },
    { name: "files", type: Array, defaultOption: true}
]);
var argv = cli.parse();

##class: CliArgs ⏏ Members

• class: CliArgs ⏏
  • new CliArgs(options)
  • cli.parse([argv])
  • cli.getUsage(options)
  • type: cli~OptionDefinition

###new CliArgs(options) A constructor function, taking your desired command-line option definitions as input, returning an instance of command-line-args which you can parse() or getUsage().

Params

• options Array.<OptionDefinition> - list of option definitions

###cli.parse([argv]) Returns a flat, or grouped object containing the values set at the command-line

Params

• [argv=process.argv] object - Optional argv array, pass to override the default process.argv.

Returns: object
Example
Output from parse() looks something like this:

{
    delete: "thisfile.txt",
    force: true
}

or, if the option definitions are grouped:

{
    standard: {
        delete: "thisfile.txt",
        force: true
    },
    extra: {
        intentions: "bad"
    }
}

###cli.getUsage(options) Params

• options object - options for template
  • title string - a title
  • header string - a header
  • footer string - a footer
  • forms array - the invocation forms

Returns: string
###type: cli~OptionDefinition Defines an option

Scope: inner typedef of command-line-args
Type: object

documented by jsdoc-to-markdown.