Does anyone know a standard package for tcl to easily parse the input arguments ? or a ready proc ? ( I have only 3 flags but something general is preferable ).
The documentation includes an example. Here is a simple example:
package require cmdline
set parameters {
{server.arg "" "Which server to search"}
{debug "Turn on debugging, default=off"}
}
set usage "- A simple script to demo cmdline parsing"
array set options [cmdline::getoptions ::argv $parameters $usage]
parray options
Sample runs:
$ tclsh simple.tcl
options(debug) = 0
options(server) =
$ tclsh simple.tcl -server google.com
options(debug) = 0
options(server) = google.com
$ tclsh simple.tcl -server google.com -debug
options(debug) = 1
options(server) = google.com
$ tclsh simple.tcl -help
simple - A simple script to demo cmdline parsing
-server value Which server to search <>
-debug Turn on debugging, default=off
-help Print this message
-? Print this message
while executing
"error [usage $optlist $usage]"
(procedure "cmdline::getoptions" line 15)
invoked from within
"cmdline::getoptions ::argv $parameters $usage"
invoked from within
"array set options [cmdline::getoptions ::argv $parameters $usage]"
(file "simple.tcl" line 11)
.arg
).-help
or -?
, however, the output is not pretty, see the last sample run.I have been thinking about the message output when the user invoke help (see the last sample run above). To get around that, you need to trap the error yourself:
set usage "- A simple script to demo cmdline parsing"
if {[catch {array set options [cmdline::getoptions ::argv $parameters $usage]}]} {
puts [cmdline::usage $parameters $usage]
} else {
parray options
}
Sample run 2:
$ tclsh simple.tcl -?
simple - A simple script to demo cmdline parsing
-server value Which server to search <>
-debug Turn on debugging, default=off
-help Print this message
-? Print this message
Thanks a lot, is there any way to declare required arguments and optional arguments ?
There is no provision for specifying required arguments--everything is optional. You will have to test each option against the default value to determine if an option was missing from the command line.
Ok, last question - any supported method for showing help menu / usage ?
I updated to remove the default value given to
-debug
to fix the help output... Now, I'm wondering if there is a way to set the default value of a boolean argument to1
. It seems this library does accept using a+debug
syntax to set such options to0
.I just tried adding
1
as the default value fordebug
, but the default value was still0
and cmdline used the1
as the help description. I'm guessing a default simply can't be set for such parameters and will always be0
.