The Urn Logo

io/argparse

An argument parsing library.

You specify the arguments for this parser, and the arg parser will handle parsing and documentation generation.

The parser is created with create and arguments can be added with add-argument!. Should you want the parser to handle --help and friends, you should call add-help!. Once the parser is ‘built’, you can parse inputs with parse!

Example

(with (spec (create))
  (add-help! spec)
  (add-argument! spec '("files")
    :help "The input files")

  (add-argument! spec '("--output" "-o")
    :help "Specify the output file"
    :default "out.lua"
    :nargs 1)

  (parse! spec))

(add-action arg data value)

Defined at lib/io/argparse.lisp:41:2

Append VALUE to the appropriate key in DATA for ARG.

(add-argument! spec names &options)

Defined at lib/io/argparse.lisp:57:2

Add a new argument to SPEC, using the specified NAMES.

OPTIONS is composed of a key followed by the corresponding value. The following options are valid:

  • :name: The name to store the result in. Defaults to the first item given in NAMES.

  • :narg: The number of arguments to consume. This can be any number, ‘+’, ‘*’ or ‘?’. Defaults to 0 if the first :name starts with -, otherwise *.
  • :default: The default value to use. Defaults to false.
  • :value: The value to use if this is used without an argument (such as a flag). Defaults to true.
  • :help: The description text to display when using this.
  • :var: The variable name to show in help files. Defaults to :name.
  • :action: The action to execute when this option is used. Must be a function which takes three arguments: current arg, data and value.
  • :many: Whether you can specify this argument multiple times.
  • :all: Whether this will consume all values, including those starting with -.
  • :cat: The “category” this argument belongs to. This must be one added by add-category!.

(add-category! spec id name description)

Defined at lib/io/argparse.lisp:149:2

Add a new category with the given ID, display NAME and an optional DESCRIPTION.

(add-help! spec)

Defined at lib/io/argparse.lisp:136:2

Add a help argument to SPEC.

This will show the help message whenever –help or -h is used and then quit the program.

(create description)

Defined at lib/io/argparse.lisp:28:2

Create a new argument parser

(help! spec name)

Defined at lib/io/argparse.lisp:198:2

Display the help for the argument parser as defined in SPEC.

(parse! spec args)

Defined at lib/io/argparse.lisp:238:2

Parse ARGS using the argument parser defined in SPEC. Returns a lookup with each argument given its value.

(set-action arg data value)

Defined at lib/io/argparse.lisp:37:2

Set the appropriate key in DATA for ARG to VALUE.

(set-num-action aspec data value usage!)

Defined at lib/io/argparse.lisp:50:2

Set the appropriate key in DATA for ARG to VALUE, ensuring it is a number.

(usage! spec name)

Defined at lib/io/argparse.lisp:167:2

Display a short usage for the argument parser as defined in SPEC.

(usage-error! spec name error)

Defined at lib/io/argparse.lisp:181:2

Display the usage of SPEC and exit with an ERROR message.