J4JSoftware.Configuration.CommandLine 4.2.0

J4JCommandLine

A Net library which adds parsing command line arguments to the IConfiguration system. Command line arguments can be bound to instance or static properties of classes, including nested classes.

There are some restrictions on the nature of the target classes, mostly having to do with them having public parameterless constructors. This is the same constraint as exists for the IConfiguration system.

The libraries are licensed under the GNU GPL-v3 or later. For more details see the license file.

See the change log for a history of significant changes.

TL;DR

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    var config = new ConfigurationBuilder()
        .AddJ4JCommandLineForWindows( out var options, out _ )
        .Build();

    options!.Bind<Program, int>(x => Program.IntValue, "i")!
        .SetDefaultValue(75)
        .SetDescription("An integer value");

    options.Bind<Program, string>(x => Program.TextValue, "t")!
        .SetDefaultValue("a cool default")
        .SetDescription("A string value");

    options.FinishConfiguration();

    var help = new ColorHelpDisplay(new WindowsLexicalElements(), options);
    help.Display();

    var parsed = config.Get<Program>();

    if (parsed == null)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Parsing failed");

        Environment.ExitCode = -1;
        return;
    }

    Console.WriteLine("Parsing succeeded");

    Console.WriteLine($"IntValue is {IntValue}");
    Console.WriteLine($"TextValue is {TextValue}");

    Console.WriteLine(options.SpuriousValues.Count == 0
        ? "No unkeyed parameters"
        : $"Unkeyed parameters: {string.Join(", ", options.SpuriousValues)}");
}

public static int IntValue { get; set; }
public static string TextValue { get; set; }

This example can be simplified further by using my dependency injection library. There is also a TryBind<...>() method which you can use as an alternative to Bind<...>().

Table of Contents

• Changes
• What It Does and Doesn't Do
• Goal and Concept
• Command Line Styles
• Binding
• Logging and Errors
• Outputting Help
• Notes on the Tokenizer and Parser