Package nz.org.riskscape.picocli

Annotation Interface CommandLine.Option

Enclosing class:

CommandLine

@Retention(RUNTIME)
@Target({FIELD,METHOD,PARAMETER})
public static @interface CommandLine.Option

Annotate fields in your class with @Option and picocli will initialize these fields when matching arguments are specified on the command line. In the case of command methods (annotated with @Command), command options can be defined by annotating method parameters with @Option.

Command class example:

  import static picocli.CommandLine.*;

 
 
public class MyClass {
      @Parameters(description = "Any number of input files")
      private List<File> files = new ArrayList<File>();
 
 
 &#064;Option(names = { "-o", "--out" }, description = "Output file (default: print to console)")
  private File outputFile;
 
  &#064;Option(names = { "-v", "--verbose"}, description = "Verbose mode. Helpful for troubleshooting. Multiple -v options increase the verbosity.")
  private boolean[] verbose;
 
  &#064;Option(names = { "-h", "--help", "-?", "-help"}, usageHelp = true, description = "Display this help and exit")
  private boolean help;
 
 
 
}
  

A field cannot be annotated with both @Parameters and @Option or a ParameterException is thrown.

Required Element Summary

Required Elements

Modifier and Type	Required Element	Description
String[]	names	One or more option names.

Optional Element Summary

Optional Elements

Modifier and Type	Optional Element	Description
String	arity	Specifies the minimum number of required parameters and the maximum number of accepted parameters.
Class<? extends Iterable<String>>	completionCandidates	Use this attribute to specify an Iterable<String> class that generates completion candidates for this option.
Class<? extends CommandLine.ITypeConverter<?>>[]	converter	Optionally specify one or more CommandLine.ITypeConverter classes to use to convert the command line argument into a strongly typed value (or key-value pair for map fields).
String	defaultValue	Returns the default value of this option, before splitting and type conversion.
String[]	description	Description of this option, used when generating the usage documentation.
String	descriptionKey	ResourceBundle key for this option.
String	fallbackValue	For options with an optional parameter (for example, arity = &quot;0..1&quot;), this value is assigned to the annotated element if the option is specified on the command line without an option parameter.
boolean	help	Deprecated. Use usageHelp() and versionHelp() instead.
boolean	hidden	Set hidden=true if this option should not be included in the usage help message.
boolean	hideParamSyntax	Returns whether usage syntax decorations around the paramLabel should be suppressed.
boolean	interactive	Set interactive=true if this option will prompt the end user for a value (like a password).
boolean	negatable	(Only for boolean options): set this to automatically add a negative version for this boolean option.
int	order	When @Command(sortOptions = false) is specified, this attribute can be used to control the order in which options are listed in the usage help message.
Class<? extends CommandLine.IParameterConsumer>	parameterConsumer	Optionally specify a custom IParameterConsumer to temporarily suspend picocli's parsing logic and process one or more command line arguments in a custom manner.
String	paramLabel	Specify a paramLabel for the option parameter to be used in the usage help message.
boolean	required	Indicates whether this option is required.
CommandLine.Help.Visibility	showDefaultValue	Use this attribute to control for a specific option whether its default value should be shown in the usage help message.
String	split	Specify a regular expression to use to split option parameter values before applying them to the field.
Class<?>[]	type	Optionally specify a type to control exactly what Class the option parameter should be converted to.
boolean	usageHelp	Set usageHelp=true for the --help option that triggers display of the usage help message.
boolean	versionHelp	Set versionHelp=true for the --version option that triggers display of the version information.

Element Details

names

String[] names

One or more option names. At least one option name is required.

Different environments have different conventions for naming options, but usually options have a prefix that sets them apart from parameters. Picocli supports all of the below styles. The default separator is '=', but this can be configured.

*nix

In Unix and Linux, options have a short (single-character) name, a long name or both. Short options (POSIX style are single-character and are preceded by the '-' character, e.g., <code>-v&#39;. <a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/tar/manual/html_node/Long-Options.html">GNU-style</a> long (or <em>mnemonic</em>) options start with two dashes in a row, e.g., </code>--file&#39;.

Picocli supports the POSIX convention that short options can be grouped, with the last option optionally taking a parameter, which may be attached to the option name or separated by a space or a '=' character. The below examples are all equivalent:

  -xvfFILE
  -xvf FILE
  -xvf=FILE
  -xv --file FILE
  -xv --file=FILE
  -x -v --file FILE
  -x -v --file=FILE
  

DOS

DOS options mostly have upper case single-character names and start with a single slash '/' character. Option parameters are separated by a ':' character. Options cannot be grouped together but must be specified separately. For example:

  DIR /S /A:D /T:C
  

PowerShell

Windows PowerShell options generally are a word preceded by a single '-' character, e.g., `-Help'. Option parameters are separated by a space or by a ':' character.

Returns:

one or more option names

required

boolean required

Indicates whether this option is required. By default this is false.

If an option is required, but a user invokes the program without specifying the required option, a CommandLine.MissingParameterException is thrown from the CommandLine.parse(String...) method.

Required options that are part of a group are required within the group, not required within the command: the group's multiplicity determines whether the group itself is required or optional.

Returns:

whether this option is required

Default:

false

help

@Deprecated
boolean help

Deprecated.

Use usageHelp() and versionHelp() instead. See CommandLine.printHelpIfRequested(List, PrintStream, CommandLine.Help.Ansi)

Set help=true if this option should disable validation of the remaining arguments: If the help option is specified, no error message is generated for missing required options.

This attribute is useful for special options like help (-h and --help on unix, -? and -Help on Windows) or version (-V and --version on unix, -Version on Windows).

Note that the CommandLine.parse(String...) method will not print help documentation. It will only set the value of the annotated field. It is the responsibility of the caller to inspect the annotated fields and take the appropriate action.

Returns:

whether this option disables validation of the other arguments

Default:

false

usageHelp

boolean usageHelp

Set usageHelp=true for the --help option that triggers display of the usage help message. The convenience methods Commandline.call, Commandline.run, and Commandline.parseWithHandler(s) will automatically print usage help when an option with usageHelp=true was specified on the command line.

By default, all options and positional parameters are included in the usage help message except when explicitly marked hidden.

If this option is specified on the command line, picocli will not validate the remaining arguments (so no "missing required option" errors) and the CommandLine.isUsageHelpRequested() method will return true.

Alternatively, consider annotating your command with @Command(mixinStandardHelpOptions = true).

Returns:

whether this option allows the user to request usage help

Since:

0.9.8

See Also:

• hidden()
• CommandLine.run(Runnable, String...)
• CommandLine.call(Callable, String...)
• CommandLine.parseWithHandler(IParseResultHandler2, String[])
• CommandLine.printHelpIfRequested(List, PrintStream, PrintStream, Help.Ansi)

Default:

false

versionHelp

boolean versionHelp

Set versionHelp=true for the --version option that triggers display of the version information. The convenience methods Commandline.call, Commandline.run, and Commandline.parseWithHandler(s) will automatically print version information when an option with versionHelp=true was specified on the command line.

The version information string is obtained from the command's version annotation or from the version provider.

If this option is specified on the command line, picocli will not validate the remaining arguments (so no "missing required option" errors) and the CommandLine.isUsageHelpRequested() method will return true.

Alternatively, consider annotating your command with @Command(mixinStandardHelpOptions = true).

Returns:

whether this option allows the user to request version information

Since:

0.9.8

See Also:

• hidden()
• CommandLine.run(Runnable, String...)
• CommandLine.call(Callable, String...)
• CommandLine.parseWithHandler(IParseResultHandler2, String[])
• CommandLine.printHelpIfRequested(List, PrintStream, PrintStream, Help.Ansi)

Default:

false

description

String[] description

Description of this option, used when generating the usage documentation. Each element of the array is rendered on a separate line.

May contain embedded format specifiers like %n line separators. Literal percent '%' characters must be escaped with another %.

The description may contain variables that are rendered when help is requested. The string ${DEFAULT-VALUE} is replaced with the default value of the option. This is regardless of the command's showDefaultValues setting or the option's showDefaultValue setting. The string ${COMPLETION-CANDIDATES} is replaced with the completion candidates generated by completionCandidates() in the description for this option. Also, embedded %n newline markers are converted to actual newlines.

Returns:

the description of this option

Default:

{}

arity

String arity

Specifies the minimum number of required parameters and the maximum number of accepted parameters. If an option declares a positive arity, and the user specifies an insufficient number of parameters on the command line, a CommandLine.MissingParameterException is thrown by the CommandLine.parse(String...) method.

In many cases picocli can deduce the number of required parameters from the field's type. By default, flags (boolean options) have arity zero, and single-valued type fields (String, int, Integer, double, Double, File, Date, etc) have arity one. Generally, fields with types that cannot hold multiple values can omit the arity attribute.

Fields used to capture options with arity two or higher should have a type that can hold multiple values, like arrays or Collections. See type() for strongly-typed Collection fields.

For example, if an option has 2 required parameters and any number of optional parameters, specify @Option(names = "-example", arity = "2..*").

A note on boolean options

By default picocli does not expect boolean options (also called "flags" or "switches") to have a parameter. You can make a boolean option take a required parameter by annotating your field with arity="1". For example:

@Option(names = "-v", arity = "1") boolean verbose;

Because this boolean field is defined with arity 1, the user must specify either <program> -v false or <program> -v true on the command line, or a CommandLine.MissingParameterException is thrown by the CommandLine.parse(String...) method.

To make the boolean parameter possible but optional, define the field with arity = "0..1". For example:

@Option(names="-v", arity="0..1") boolean verbose;

This will accept any of the below without throwing an exception:

  -v
  -v true
  -v false
  

Returns:

how many arguments this option requires

Default:

""

paramLabel

String paramLabel

Specify a paramLabel for the option parameter to be used in the usage help message. If omitted, picocli uses the field name in fish brackets ('<' and '>') by default. Example:

class Example {
      @Option(names = {"-o", "--output"}, paramLabel="FILE", description="path of the output file")
      private File out;
      @Option(names = {"-j", "--jobs"}, arity="0..1", description="Allow N jobs at once; infinite jobs with no arg.")
      private int maxJobs = -1;
  }

By default, the above gives a usage help message like the following:

  Usage: <main class> [OPTIONS]
  -o, --output FILE       path of the output file
  -j, --jobs [<maxJobs>]  Allow N jobs at once; infinite jobs with no arg.
  

Returns:

name of the option parameter used in the usage help message

Default:

""

hideParamSyntax

boolean hideParamSyntax

Returns whether usage syntax decorations around the paramLabel should be suppressed. The default is false: by default, the paramLabel is surrounded with '[' and ']' characters if the value is optional and followed by ellipses ("...") when multiple values can be specified.

Since:

3.6.0

Default:

false

type

Class<?>[] type

Optionally specify a type to control exactly what Class the option parameter should be converted to. This may be useful when the field type is an interface or an abstract class. For example, a field can be declared to have type java.lang.Number, and annotating @Option(type=Short.class) ensures that the option parameter value is converted to a Short before setting the field value.

For array fields whose component type is an interface or abstract class, specify the concrete component type. For example, a field with type Number[] may be annotated with @Option(type=Short.class) to ensure that option parameter values are converted to Short before adding an element to the array.

Picocli will use the CommandLine.ITypeConverter that is registered for the specified type to convert the raw String values before modifying the field value.

Prior to 2.0, the type attribute was necessary for Collection and Map fields, but starting from 2.0 picocli will infer the component type from the generic type's type arguments. For example, for a field of type Map<TimeUnit, Long> picocli will know the option parameter should be split up in key=value pairs, where the key should be converted to a java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit enum value, and the value should be converted to a Long. No @Option(type=...) type attribute is required for this. For generic types with wildcards, picocli will take the specified upper or lower bound as the Class to convert to, unless the @Option annotation specifies an explicit type attribute.

If the field type is a raw collection or a raw map, and you want it to contain other values than Strings, or if the generic type's type arguments are interfaces or abstract classes, you may specify a type attribute to control the Class that the option parameter should be converted to.

Returns:

the type(s) to convert the raw String values

Default:

{}

converter

Class<? extends CommandLine.ITypeConverter<?>>[] converter

Optionally specify one or more CommandLine.ITypeConverter classes to use to convert the command line argument into a strongly typed value (or key-value pair for map fields). This is useful when a particular field should use a custom conversion that is different from the normal conversion for the field's type.

For example, for a specific field you may want to use a converter that maps the constant names defined in java.sql.Types to the int value of these constants, but any other int fields should not be affected by this and should continue to use the standard int converter that parses numeric values.

Returns:

the type converter(s) to use to convert String values to strongly typed values for this field

See Also:

• CommandLine.registerConverter(Class, ITypeConverter)

Default:

{}

split

String split

Specify a regular expression to use to split option parameter values before applying them to the field. All elements resulting from the split are added to the array or Collection. Previously ignored for single-value fields, from picocli 4.0 a split regex can only be specified on multi-value options and positional parameters.

Returns:

a regular expression to split option parameter values or "" if the value should not be split

See Also:

• String.split(String)

Default:

""

hidden

boolean hidden

Set hidden=true if this option should not be included in the usage help message.

Returns:

whether this option should be excluded from the usage documentation

Default:

false

defaultValue

String defaultValue

Returns the default value of this option, before splitting and type conversion.

Returns:

a String that (after type conversion) will be used as the value for this option if the option was not specified on the command line

Since:

3.2

See Also:

• fallbackValue()

Default:

"__no_default_value__"

showDefaultValue

CommandLine.Help.Visibility showDefaultValue

Use this attribute to control for a specific option whether its default value should be shown in the usage help message. If not specified, the default value is only shown when the CommandLine.Command.showDefaultValues() is set true on the command. Use this attribute to specify whether the default value for this specific option should always be shown or never be shown, regardless of the command setting.

Note that picocli 3.2 allows embedding default values anywhere in the description that ignores this setting.

Returns:

whether this option's default value should be shown in the usage help message

Default:

ON_DEMAND

completionCandidates

Class<? extends Iterable<String>> completionCandidates

Use this attribute to specify an Iterable<String> class that generates completion candidates for this option. For map fields, completion candidates should be in key=value form.

Completion candidates are used in bash completion scripts generated by the picocli.AutoComplete class. Bash has special completion options to generate file names and host names, and the bash completion scripts generated by AutoComplete delegate to these bash built-ins for @Options whose type is java.io.File, java.nio.file.Path or java.net.InetAddress.

For @Options whose type is a Java enum, AutoComplete can generate completion candidates from the type. For other types, use this attribute to specify completion candidates.

Returns:

a class whose instances can iterate over the completion candidates for this option

Since:

3.2

See Also:

• picocli.CommandLine.IFactory

Default:

nz.org.riskscape.picocli.CommandLine.NoCompletionCandidates.class

interactive

boolean interactive

Set interactive=true if this option will prompt the end user for a value (like a password). Only supported for single-value options and char[] arrays (no collections, maps or other array types). When running on Java 6 or greater, this will use the Console.readPassword() API to get a value without echoing input to the console.

Best security practice is to use type char[] instead of String, and to to null out the array after use.

When defined with arity = "0..1", the option can also take a value from the command line. (The user will still be prompted if no option parameter was specified on the command line.) This is useful for commands that need to be run interactively as well as in batch mode.

Returns:

whether this option prompts the end user for a value to be entered on the command line

Since:

3.5

Default:

false

descriptionKey

String descriptionKey

ResourceBundle key for this option. If not specified, (and a ResourceBundle exists for this command) an attempt is made to find the option description using any of the option names (without leading hyphens) as key.

Since:

3.6

See Also:

• CommandLine.Model.ArgSpec.description()

Default:

""

order

int order

When @Command(sortOptions = false) is specified, this attribute can be used to control the order in which options are listed in the usage help message.

Returns:

the position in the options list at which this option should be shown. Options with a lower number are shown before options with a higher number. Gaps are allowed.

Since:

3.9

Default:

-1

negatable

boolean negatable

(Only for boolean options): set this to automatically add a negative version for this boolean option. For example, for a --force option the negative version would be --no-force, and for a -XX:+PrintGCDetails option, the negative version would be -XX:-PrintGCDetails. The synopsis would show --[no-]force and -XX:(+|-)PrintGCDetails, respectively.

The form of the negative name can be customized by modifying the regular expressions used by default, or by replacing the default CommandLine.INegatableOptionTransformer with a custom implementation entirely.

Negative option names used to parse the command line are collected when the command is constructed (so any variables in the option names will be resolved at that time). Documentation strings for negatable options are generated on demand when the usage help message is shown.

Since:

4.0

See Also:

• CommandLine.getNegatableOptionTransformer()
• CommandLine.setNegatableOptionTransformer(INegatableOptionTransformer)

Default:

false

fallbackValue

String fallbackValue

For options with an optional parameter (for example, arity = "0..1"), this value is assigned to the annotated element if the option is specified on the command line without an option parameter.

This is different from the defaultValue(), which is assigned if the option is not specified at all on the command line.

Using a fallbackValue allows applications to distinguish between

• option was not specified on the command line (default value assigned)
• option was specified without parameter on the command line (fallback value assigned)
• option was specified with parameter on the command line (command line argument value assigned)

This is useful to define options that can function as a boolean "switch" and optionally allow users to provide a (strongly typed) extra parameter value.

See Also:

• CommandLine.Model.OptionSpec.fallbackValue()

Default:

""

parameterConsumer

Class<? extends CommandLine.IParameterConsumer> parameterConsumer

Optionally specify a custom IParameterConsumer to temporarily suspend picocli's parsing logic and process one or more command line arguments in a custom manner. This may be useful when passing arguments through to another program.

Default:

nz.org.riskscape.picocli.CommandLine.NullParameterConsumer.class