Command Line Parser Library 1.9.1.11 for CLR.

The Command Line Parser Library offers to CLR applications a clean and concise API for manipulating command line arguments and related tasks. It allows you to display an help screen with an high degree of customization and a simple way to report syntax errors to the user. Everything that is boring and repetitive to be programmed stands up on library shoulders, letting you concentrate yourself on core logic. The search for the command line parser for your application is over, with this library you got a solid parsing API constantly updated since 2005.

Compatibility:

C# 3.0+ compiler
.NET Framework 2.0+
Mono 2.1+ Profile

News:

If you use a bad value setting a default value a CommandLineParserException is raised.
Added field initialization via BaseOptionAttribute::DefaultValue.
Added support for parsing culture-specific values.
Added singleton CommandLineParser.Default for common uses.

To build:

MonoDevelop or Visual Studio.

To install:

NuGet way: Install-Package CommandLine
XCOPY way: cp CommandLine/src/libcmdline/*.cs To/Your/Project/Dir

To start:

Notes:

The project is small and well suited (or better thought) to be included in your application. If you don't merge it to your project tree, you must reference CommandLine.dll and import CommandLine and CommandLine.Text namespaces (or install via NuGet). I recommend you source inclusion over assembly referencing. The help text builder (CommandLine.Text.HelpText) is not coupled with the parser, so, if you don't need it, don't include it in your project. Anyway using HelpText class will avoid you a lot of repetitive coding.

Create a class to receive parsed values:

    class Options {
      [Option("r", "read", Required=True, DefaultValue = "in.dat",
        HelpText="Input file to be processed.")]
      public string InputFile { get; set; }
    
      [Option("v", "verbose", DefaultValue = true,
        HelpText="Output all messages to standard output.")]
      public bool Verbose { get; set; }

      [HelpOption]
      public string GetUsage() {
        var help = new HelpText(new HeadingInfo("github-sample", "0.1"));
        help.Copyright = new CopyrightInfo("your name here", 2005, 2012);
        help.AddPreOptionsLine("some custom stuff here");
        help.AddOptions(this);
        return help;
      }
    }

Add few lines to your Main method:

    static void Main(string[] args) {
      var options = new Options();
      if (CommandLineParser.Default.ParseArguments(args, options)) {
        // Consume values here
        if (options.Verbose) Console.WriteLine("Filename: {0}", options.InputFile);
      }
    }

Resources for newcomers:

Contacts:

Giacomo Stelluti Scala

gsscoder AT gmail DOT com
Blog

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