What is a good way of parsing command line arguments in Java?
20 Answers
Check these out:
Or roll your own:
For instance, this is how you use commons-cli to parse 2 string arguments:
import org.apache.commons.cli.*;
public class Main {
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
Options options = new Options();
Option input = new Option("i", "input", true, "input file path");
input.setRequired(true);
options.addOption(input);
Option output = new Option("o", "output", true, "output file");
output.setRequired(true);
options.addOption(output);
CommandLineParser parser = new DefaultParser();
HelpFormatter formatter = new HelpFormatter();
CommandLine cmd = null;//not a good practice, it serves it purpose
try {
cmd = parser.parse(options, args);
} catch (ParseException e) {
System.out.println(e.getMessage());
formatter.printHelp("utility-name", options);
System.exit(1);
}
String inputFilePath = cmd.getOptionValue("input");
String outputFilePath = cmd.getOptionValue("output");
System.out.println(inputFilePath);
System.out.println(outputFilePath);
}
}
usage from command line:
$> java -jar target/my-utility.jar -i asd
Missing required option: o
usage: utility-name
-i,--input <arg> input file path
-o,--output <arg> output file
I've used JOpt and found it quite handy: http://jopt-simple.sourceforge.net/
The front page also provides a list of about 8 alternative libraries, check them out and pick the one that most suits your needs.
I know most people here are going to find 10 million reasons why they dislike my way, but nevermind. I like to keep things simple, so I just separate the key from the value using a '=' and store them in a HashMap like this:
Map<String, String> argsMap = new HashMap<>();
for (String arg: args) {
String[] parts = arg.split("=");
argsMap.put(parts[0], parts[1]);
}
You could always maintain a list with the arguments you are expecting, to help the user in case he forgot an argument or used a wrong one... However, if you want too many features this solution is not for you anyway.
Yeap.
I think you're looking for something like this: http://commons.apache.org/cli
The Apache Commons CLI library provides an API for processing command line interfaces.
If you are already using Spring Boot, argument parsing comes out of the box.
If you want to run something after startup, implement the ApplicationRunner interface:
@SpringBootApplication
public class Application implements ApplicationRunner {
public static void main(String[] args) {
SpringApplication.run(Application.class, args);
}
@Override
public void run(ApplicationArguments args) {
args.containsOption("my-flag-option"); // test if --my-flag-option was set
args.getOptionValues("my-option"); // returns values of --my-option=value1 --my-option=value2
args.getOptionNames(); // returns a list of all available options
// do something with your args
}
}
Your run method will be invoked after the context has started up successfully.
If you need access to the arguments before you fire up your application context, you can just simply parse the application arguments manually:
@SpringBootApplication
public class Application implements ApplicationRunner {
public static void main(String[] args) {
ApplicationArguments arguments = new DefaultApplicationArguments(args);
// do whatever you like with your arguments
// see above ...
SpringApplication.run(Application.class, args);
}
}
And finally, if you need access to your arguments in a bean, just inject the ApplicationArguments:
@Component
public class MyBean {
@Autowired
private ApplicationArguments arguments;
// ...
}
Maybe these
JArgs command line option parsing suite for Java - this tiny project provides a convenient, compact, pre-packaged and comprehensively documented suite of command line option parsers for the use of Java programmers. Initially, parsing compatible with GNU-style 'getopt' is provided.
ritopt, The Ultimate Options Parser for Java - Although, several command line option standards have been preposed, ritopt follows the conventions prescribed in the opt package.
If you are familiar with gnu getopt, there is a Java port at: http://www.urbanophile.com/arenn/hacking/download.htm.
There appears to be a some classes that do this:
Argparse4j is best I have found. It mimics Python's argparse libary which is very convenient and powerful.
I want to show you my implementation: ReadyCLI
Advantages:
- for lazy programmers: a very small number of classes to learn, just see the two small examples on the README in the repository and you are already at 90% of learning; just start coding your CLI/Parser without any other knowledge; ReadyCLI allows coding CLIs in the most natural way;
- it is designed with Developer Experience in mind; it largely uses the Builder design pattern and functional interfaces for Lambda Expressions, to allow a very quick coding;
- it supports Options, Flags and Sub-Commands;
- it allows to parse arguments from command-line and to build more complex and interactive CLIs;
- a CLI can be started on Standard I/O just as easily as on any other I/O interface, such as sockets;
- it gives great support for documentation of commands.
I developed this project as I needed new features (options, flag, sub-commands) and that could be used in the simplest possible way in my projects.
As one of the comments mentioned earlier (https://github.com/pcj/google-options) would be a good choice to start with.
One thing I want to add-on is:
1) If you run into some parser reflection error, please try use a newer version of the guava. in my case:
maven_jar(
name = "com_google_guava_guava",
artifact = "com.google.guava:guava:19.0",
server = "maven2_server",
)
maven_jar(
name = "com_github_pcj_google_options",
artifact = "com.github.pcj:google-options:jar:1.0.0",
server = "maven2_server",
)
maven_server(
name = "maven2_server",
url = "http://central.maven.org/maven2/",
)
2) When running the commandline:
bazel run path/to/your:project -- --var1 something --var2 something -v something
3) When you need the usage help, just type:
bazel run path/to/your:project -- --help
For Spring users, we should mention also https://docs.spring.io/spring/docs/current/javadoc-api/org/springframework/core/env/SimpleCommandLinePropertySource.html and his twin brother https://docs.spring.io/spring/docs/current/javadoc-api/org/springframework/core/env/JOptCommandLinePropertySource.html (JOpt implementation of the same functionality). The advantage in Spring is that you can directly bind the command line arguments to attributes, there is an example here https://docs.spring.io/spring/docs/current/javadoc-api/org/springframework/core/env/CommandLinePropertySource.html
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