Just having `--help` or `--version` can make us get invalid args instead
of invalid subcommands. It doesn't make sense to do this unless
positionals are used. Even then it might not make sense but this is at
least a step in the right direction.
Unsure how I feel about this being backported to clap 3. It most likely
would be fine?
This was noticed while looking into #4218
This was ported over from the usage parser which modeled after docopt.
We just never got around to implementing the rest of the syntax.
However, when considering this as a standalone feature, an
`arg!(--flag <value>)`, outside of other context, should be optional.
This is how the help would display it.
Fixes#4206
In looking at other help output, I noticed that they use two spaces, in
place of clap's 4, and it doesn't suffer from legibility. If it
doesn't make the output worse, let's go ahead and make it as dense so we
fit more content on the screen.
This is a part of #4132
This makes it match up with `Command::allow_hyphen_values` which was the
guiding factor for what the behavior should be.
This supersedes #4039Fixes#3880Fixes#1538
In switching to title case for help headings (#4123), it caused me to
look at "subcommand" in a fresh light. I can't quite put my finger on
it but "Subcommand" looks a bit sloppy. I also have recently been
surveying other CLIs and they just use "command" as well.
All of them are commands anyways, just some are children of others
(subcommands) while others are not (root or top-level commands, or just
command). Context is good enough for clarifying subcommands from root
commands.
This is part of #4132
The setting was added to resolve#769. The reason it was optional is out
of concern for applications with a lot of positional arguments. I think
those cases are rare enough that we should just push people to override
the usage. Positional arguments are generally important enough, even if
optional, to show.
As a side effect, this fixed some bugs with
`dont_collapse_args_in_usage` where it would repeat an argument in a
smart usage.
As a side effect, smart usage now shows `--` when it should
I see them fulfilling two roles
- A form of bolding
- As a callback to their placeholder in usage
However, it is a bit of an unpolished look and no other CLI seems to do
it. This looks a bit more proefessional. We have colored help for
formatting and I think the sections relation to usage will be clear
enough.
Before we introduced actions, it required specific setups to engage with
claps version and help printing. With actions making that more
explicit, we don't get as much benefit from our multiple, obscure, ways
of users customizing help
Before
- Modify existing help or version with `mut_arg` which would
automatically be pushed down the command tree like `global(true)`
- Create an new help or version and have it treated as if it was the
built-in on (I think)
- Use the same flags as built-in and have the built-in flags
automatically disabled
- Users could explicitly disable the built-in functionality and do what
they want
Now
- `mut_arg` no longer works as we define help and version flags at the
end
- If someone defines a flag that overlaps with the built-ins by id,
long, or short, a debug assert will tell them to explicitly disable
the built-in
- Any customization has to be done by a user providing their own. To
propagate through the command tree, they need to set `global(true)`.
Benefits
- Hopefully, this makes it less confusing on how to override help
behavior. Someone creates an arg and we then tell them how to disable
the built-in
- This greatly simplifies the arg handling by pushing more
responsibility onto the developer in what are hopefully just corner
cases
- This removes about 1Kb from .text
Fixes#3405Fixes#4033
In clap v3, `require_value_delimiter` activated an alternative parse
mode where
- `multiple_values` meant "multiple values within a single arg"
- `number_of_values` having no parse impact, only validation impact
- `value_names` being delimited values
For unbounded `number_of_values`, this is exactly what `value_delimiter`
provides. The only value is if someone wanted `value_name` to be
`<file1>,<file2>,...` which can be useful and we might look into adding
back in.
Alternatively, this could be used for cases like key-value pairs but
that has issues like not allowing the delimiter in the value which might
be ok in some cases but not others. We already instead document that
people should instead use `ValueParser` for this case.
In removing this, we remove points of confusion at how the different
multiple values and delimited value calls interact with each other. I
know I would set `require_value_delimiter(true).multiple_values(true)`
when it turns out all I needed was `value_delimiter(',')`.
This also reduces the API surface area which makes it easier to discover
what features we do provide.
While this isn't big, this is also yet another small step towards
reducing binary size and compile times.
This reduces ambiguity in how the different "multiple" parts of the API
interact and lowrs the amount of API surface area users have to dig
through to use clap.
For now, this is only a matter of cleaning up the public API. Cleaning
up the implementation is the next step.
With `number_of_values` being per-occurrence now, its doesn't make sense
for `number_of_values(0)` to set `takes_value(true)` or for
`number_of_values(1)` to set `multiple_values(true)`.
In addition, an assert is made if the user works around this
This changes the default type as well to encourage preserving the full
information for shelling out. If people need UTF-8, then they can
change the value parser.
Fixes#3733
This shouldn't be needed anymore now that this is effectively the new
behavior for the non-deprecated actions.
This was briefly talked about in
https://github.com/clap-rs/clap/discussions/2627 but I wasn't familiar
enough with the implementation to know how safe it is. Now, maintainrs
and users can be more confident because they are explicitly opting into
it.
See also #3795
Before, if two arguments were required *and* overrode each other, then
`cmd --opt=1 --other=2` succeded but `cmd --other=2` failed despite
ignoring `--opt=1`. Requiring `--opt=1` to be present but unavailable
doesn't help anyone and makes the behavior less predictable.
Now both commands will have the same behavior.
`Command::_build_all` started as an internal function for
`clap_complete` as a stopgap until #2911. Overtime, we've been finding
more cases where this function needs to be called, so now we're going to
fully embrace it until #2911 so people aren't scrared off by the hidden
implementation from using it.
This was inspired by #3602
Comptibility: Though this adds a deprecation which we general reserve
for minor or major versions, this is enough of a corner case that I'm
fine doing this in a patch release.
Now that we can use `SubcommandRequired |
ArgRequiredElseHelp`, this setting offers little value but requires we
track required subcommands with two different settings. Deprecating as
the cost is not worth the benefit anymore.
Issue #3280 will see the derive updated
Like was said in #2435, this is what people would expect.
While we should note this in a compatibility section in the changelog, I
do not consider this a breaking change since we should be free to adjust
the help output as needed. We are cautious when people might build up
their own content around it (like #3312) but apps should already handle
this with `--help` so this shouldn't be a major change.
We aren't offering a way for people to disable this, assuming people
won't need to. Longer term, we are looking at support "Actions" (#3405)
and expect those to help customize the flags. We'll need something
similar for the `help` subcommand.
Fixes#3440
This is a part of #2717
Some settings didn't get getters because
- They are transient parse settings (e.g. ignore errors)
- They get propagated to args and should be checked there
`is_allow_hyphen_values_set` is a curious case. In some cases, we only
check the app and not an arg. This seems suspicious.
