Module info.picocli
Package picocli

Annotation Type CommandLine.Option

  • @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>();

     @Option(names = { "-o", "--out" }, description = "Output file (default: print to console)")
     private File outputFile;

     @Option(names = { "-v", "--verbose"}, description = "Verbose mode. Helpful for troubleshooting. Multiple -v options increase the verbosity.")
     private boolean[] verbose;

     @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.

    • Field Summary

      Fields 
      Modifier and Type Fields Description
      static String NULL_VALUE
      Special value that can be used in some annotation attributes to designate null.

    • 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.
      boolean echo
      Use this attribute to control whether user input for an interactive option is echoed to the console or not.
      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.
      boolean help
      This should rarely be used: the recommended attributes are usageHelp and versionHelp.
      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 to make this option prompt the end user for a value (like a password).
      String mapFallbackValue
      For options of type Map, setting the mapFallbackValue to any value allows end user to specify key-only parameters for this option.
      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.
      Class<? extends CommandLine.IParameterPreprocessor> preprocessor
      Returns the preprocessor for this option.
      String prompt
      Use this attribute to customize the text displayed to the end user for an interactive option when asking for user input.
      boolean required
      Indicates whether this option is required.
      CommandLine.ScopeType scope
      Determines on which command(s) this option exists: on this command only (the default), or whether this is a "global" option that is applied to this command and all subcommands, sub-subcommands, etc.
      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.
      String splitSynopsisLabel
      Specify the string to display for the split regular expression in the usage help synopsis.
      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 Detail

      • 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., `-v'. GNU-style long (or mnemonic) options start with two dashes in a row, e.g., `--file'.

        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

        boolean help

        This should rarely be used: the recommended attributes are usageHelp and versionHelp.

        Only set help=true when this option should disable validation of the remaining arguments, and no error message should be generated for missing required options.

        This is useful for custom help options that are in addition to the standard help and version options. For example if your application has many hidden options or subcommands, and there is a custom help option like --detailed-help that prints the usage help message for these hidden options and subcommands.

        Note:

        Use the usageHelp for "normal" help options (like -h and --help on unix, -? and -Help on Windows) and use versionHelp for "normal" version help (-V and --version on unix, -Version on Windows): picocli has built-in logic so that options with usageHelp=true or versionHelp=true will automatically cause the requested help message to be printed in applications that use the CommandLine.execute(String...) method, without any code in the application.

        Note that there is no such automatic help printing for options with help=true; applications need to check whether the end user specified this option and take appropriate action in the business logic of the application.

        Returns:
        whether this option disables validation of the other arguments
        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
        See Also:
        Variable Interpolation section of the user manual
        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 "0..1", 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 allows boolean options (also called "flags" or "switches") to have an optional parameter, which must be either "true" or "false" (lowercase, other values are rejected). 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 remove the optional parameter, define the field with arity = "0". For example: 

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

        This will reject any of the below:

         -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:
        ""

      • splitSynopsisLabel

        String splitSynopsisLabel
        Specify the string to display for the split regular expression in the usage help synopsis.
        Since:
        4.3
        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.

        To get a null default value, omit specifying a default value or use the special value NULL_VALUE - for options of type Optional<T> that will result in the Optional.empty() value being assigned when the option is not specified on the command line.

        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 by specifying the variable ${DEFAULT-VALUE} anywhere in the description that ignores this setting.

        Returns:
        whether this option's default value should be shown in the usage help message
        Default:
        picocli.CommandLine.Help.Visibility.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:
        CommandLine.IFactory
        Default:
        picocli.CommandLine.NoCompletionCandidates.class

      • interactive

        boolean interactive
        Set interactive=true to make this option 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 and echo = false (the default), this will use the Console.readPassword() API to get a value without echoing input to the console, otherwise it will simply read a value from System.in.

        For passwords, 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

      • echo

        boolean echo
        Use this attribute to control whether user input for an interactive option is echoed to the console or not. If echo = true, the user input is echoed to the console. This attribute is ignored when interactive = false (the default).
        Returns:
        whether the user input for an interactive option should be echoed to the console or not
        Since:
        4.6
        See Also:
        CommandLine.Model.ArgSpec.echo()
        Default:
        false

      • prompt

        String prompt
        Use this attribute to customize the text displayed to the end user for an interactive option when asking for user input. When omitted, the displayed text is derived from the option name and the first description line. This attribute is ignored when interactive = false (the default).
        Returns:
        the text to display to the end user for an interactive option when asking for user input
        Since:
        4.6
        See Also:
        CommandLine.Model.ArgSpec.prompt()
        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. When @Command(sortSynopsis = false) is specified, this attribute controls the order in which options appear in the synopsis of 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

      • scope

        CommandLine.ScopeType scope
        Determines on which command(s) this option exists: on this command only (the default), or whether this is a "global" option that is applied to this command and all subcommands, sub-subcommands, etc.
        Since:
        4.3
        Default:
        picocli.CommandLine.ScopeType.LOCAL

      • 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.

        Use the special value NULL_VALUE to specify null - for options of type Optional<T> that will result in the Optional.empty() value being assigned when the option name is specified without a parameter on the command line.

        Since:
        4.0
        See Also:
        CommandLine.Model.OptionSpec.fallbackValue()
        Default:
        ""

      • mapFallbackValue

        String mapFallbackValue
        For options of type Map, setting the mapFallbackValue to any value allows end user to specify key-only parameters for this option. For example, -Dkey instead of -Dkey=value.

        The value specified in this annotation is the value that is put into the Map for the user-specified key. Use the special value NULL_VALUE to specify null - for maps of type Map<K, Optional<V>> that will result in Optional.empty() values in the map when only the key is specified.

        If no mapFallbackValue is set, key-only Map parameters like -Dkey are considered invalid user input and cause a CommandLine.ParameterException to be thrown.

        Since:
        4.6
        See Also:
        CommandLine.Model.ArgSpec.mapFallbackValue()
        Default:
        "__unspecified__"

      • 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.
        Since:
        4.0
        Default:
        picocli.CommandLine.NullParameterConsumer.class