picocli

Annotation Type CommandLine.Option

@Retention(value=RUNTIME)
@Target(value=FIELD)
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.

For 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.

Required Element Summary

Required Elements

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

Optional Element Summary

Optional Elements

Modifier and Type	Optional Element and Description
java.lang.String	arity Specifies the minimum number of required parameters and the maximum number of accepted parameters.
java.lang.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).
java.lang.String[]	description Description of this option, used when generating the usage documentation.
boolean	help Deprecated. Use usageHelp() and versionHelp() instead. See CommandLine.printHelpIfRequested(List, PrintStream, CommandLine.Help.Ansi)
boolean	hidden Set hidden=true if this option should not be included in the usage documentation.
java.lang.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.
java.lang.String	split Specify a regular expression to use to split option parameter values before applying them to the field.
java.lang.Class<?>[]	type Optionally specify a type to control exactly what Class the option parameter should be converted to.
boolean	usageHelp Set usageHelp=true if this option allows the user to request usage help.
boolean	versionHelp Set versionHelp=true if this option allows the user to request version information.

Element Detail

names

public abstract java.lang.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

public abstract 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.

Returns:

whether this option is required

Default:

false

help

public abstract 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

public abstract boolean usageHelp

Set usageHelp=true if this option allows the user to request usage help. 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.

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

Note that the CommandLine.parse(String...) method will not print usage 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 allows the user to request usage help

Since:

0.9.8

Default:

false

versionHelp

public abstract boolean versionHelp

Set versionHelp=true if this option allows the user to request version information. 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.isVersionHelpRequested() method will return true.

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

Note that the CommandLine.parse(String...) method will not print version information. 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 allows the user to request version information

Since:

0.9.8

Default:

false

description

public abstract java.lang.String[] description

Description of this option, used when generating the usage documentation.

Returns:

the description of this option

Default:

{}

arity

public abstract java.lang.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

public abstract java.lang.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:

""

type

public abstract java.lang.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

public abstract java.lang.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

public abstract java.lang.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. Ignored for single-value fields.

Returns:

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

See Also:

String.split(String)

Default:

""

hidden

public abstract boolean hidden

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

Returns:

whether this option should be excluded from the usage message

Default:

false