How can I get usageHelpRequested evaluated before errors from missing required option

[ppazos]

Hi all,

I have a small app with this main below. There is one command with a required option. When I execute with -h, the parseArgs fail because of the missing required option. Is there a way to parse the args to get the usageHelpRequested flag set and evaluated before failing because of the missing required options?

Thanks!

   static void main(String[] args)
   {
      CommandLine commandLine = new CommandLine(new App());
      commandLine.parseArgs(args)    <<<< with -h it fails here

      if (commandLine.isUsageHelpRequested())
      {
         commandLine.printVersionHelp(System.out)
         commandLine.usage(System.out)
         return
      }

      if (commandLine.isVersionHelpRequested())
      {
         commandLine.printVersionHelp(System.out)
         return
      }

      int rc = commandLine.execute(args) // new CommandLine(app).execute(args)
      System.exit(rc)
....
}

[remkop]

That is weird. If a help option is specified, that should not happen.

Does your App class define the -h option, or did you put the @Command(mixinStandardHelpOptions = true) annotation on the App class?

[ppazos]

Thanks @remkop I use the class fields for the help and info, I think I took them from one of your guides. Not using the mixin, let me try.

class App {

   @Option(names = ["-V", "--version"], versionHelp = true, description = "display version info")
   boolean versionInfoRequested

   @Option(names = ["-h", "--help"], usageHelp = true, description = "display this help message")
   boolean usageHelpRequested

   @Command(
      name = 'run',
      description = 'Runs a chain definition'
   )
   public void runCommand(
      @Option(names = ["-u", "--base-url"],         description = "openEHR REST API based URL")                    URL base_url,
      @Option(names = ["-a", "--auth"],             description = "Auth type: none, auth, token")                  String auth,
      @Option(names = ["-t", "--access-token"],     description = "API access token")                              String access_token,
      @Option(names = ["-c", "--credentials"],      description = "Authentication credentials: username:password") String credentials,
      @Option(names = ["-d", "--chain-definition"], description = "Path to a chain definition", required = true)   Path chain_definition
   )

[ppazos]

Added @command(mixinStandardHelpOptions = true, ...)

$ gradle run --args="run -h"

> Task :app:run FAILED
Exception in thread "main" picocli.CommandLine$MissingParameterException: Missing required option: '--chain-definition=<arg4>'
        at picocli.CommandLine$MissingParameterException.create(CommandLine.java:18661)
        at picocli.CommandLine$MissingParameterException.access$21200(CommandLine.java:18649)
        at picocli.CommandLine$Interpreter.validateConstraints(CommandLine.java:13651)
        at picocli.CommandLine$Interpreter.parse(CommandLine.java:13614)
        at picocli.CommandLine$Interpreter.processSubcommand(CommandLine.java:13904)
        at picocli.CommandLine$Interpreter.processArguments(CommandLine.java:13800)
        at picocli.CommandLine$Interpreter.parse(CommandLine.java:13591)
        at picocli.CommandLine$Interpreter.parse(CommandLine.java:13559)
        at picocli.CommandLine$Interpreter.parse(CommandLine.java:13454)
        at picocli.CommandLine.parseArgs(CommandLine.java:1552)
        at picocli.CommandLine$parseArgs.call(Unknown Source)
        at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.CallSiteArray.defaultCall(CallSiteArray.java:47)
        at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.AbstractCallSite.call(AbstractCallSite.java:125)
        at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.AbstractCallSite.call(AbstractCallSite.java:139)
        at com.cabolabs.automation.App.main(App.groovy:133)

[ppazos]

FYI: I think this was the guide I followed https://picocli.info/quick-guide.html

[remkop]

Your run subcommand does not define a -h option.

Three ideas:

• make the -h option in the top-level command an inherited option, so that the -h option is automatically added to all subcommands
• or explicitly define a -h (usageHelp = true) option in the run subcommand
• or define the run subcommand with mixinStandardHelpOptions = true, like below:

@Command(
      name = 'run', mixinStandardHelpOptions = true,
      description = 'Runs a chain definition'
   )
public void runCommand( ...

[remkop]

Also, the execute method internally calls parseArgs, so you end up parsing the input twice.

Your main method can be simplified to this:

static void main(String[] args)
   {
      int rc = new CommandLine(new App()).execute(args);
      System.exit(rc);
}

[ppazos]

Thanks for the tip, will try and get back.