Command Line Library

🧶 A command line (CLI) library that will help you to build your command line applications with out of the box.

Features

• Just copy the files cli.h and cli.cpp in your project and create your whole CLI with c++.
• All the currently features are concisely in the class called Cli.
• Easy to use and very simple to understand.
• Well documented, therefore you don't need to crack your brain.
• Written following Google's c++ style guide.

⬇️ Getting Started

1. Download or clone the repository
2. Copy the files cli.h and cli.cpp at src into your codebase
3. See usage and api

# (1)
git clone https://github.com/kauefraga/cpp-commandline.git
cd cpp-commandline

# (2)
cp src/cli.h src/cli.cpp ../path/to/your/project

You are welcome to open issues and pull requests!

Usage

To have access to the command line library features you need to include the files src/cli.h and src/cli.cpp in your source code.

Example: include the library in your code, then use the class to parse the given arguments and print it out.

// Input: main.exe "Hiiii" -number 23

#include "../path/to/cpp-commandline/cli.h" // includes <vector> and <string>

int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {
  // If there is only one argument or less, then print help
  if (argc <= 1) {
    std::cout << "Usage: [name].exe [options]" << '\n';
    std::cout << "  -help (boolean)" << '\n';
      
    return 1;
  }

  Cli cli(argc, argv, "[name]", "[version]");

  // All the arguments
  for (std::string argument : cli.arguments) {
    if (argument == "-help") {
      std::cout << "HERE IS YOUR HELP MY FRIEND" << '\n';
    }

    std::cout << argument << '\n';
  }

  std::cout << "----------------" << '\n';

  // Only the flags
  for (std::string flag : cli.flags) {
    std::cout << flag << '\n';
  }

  return 0;
}

Expected:

# main.exe -help

> path/to/the/executable/main.exe # the executable is part of the arguments
> HERE IS YOUR HELP MY FRIEND
> -help # By now, the flags are part of the arguments too
> ----------------
> -help

API

Classes

• Cli - It parses arguments, flags and store it.
  • Cli(int arguments_count, char* arguments_vector, string name, string version) - The constructor takes the arguments count (argc), the arguments vector (argv), the application name, the version and stores it.
  • Public methods: currently, there are only getters methods.
  • Private methods: parse_arguments and parse_flags.
  • Private properties: m_arguments_count, m_arguments, m_flags, m_name and m_version.

Util functions

• bool is_flag(string argument) - Verify if there is a '-' at the initial position (0) of the argument.

Read the doxygen documentation at code too.

🧻 Resources

These are the contents that i consume to develop this library:

• How to use c++ classes - An awesome article about classes.
• How command line arguments work - A wonderful content of command line arguments.
• Command Line Interface Guidelines - An open-source guide to help you write better command-line programs.
• The API is inspired by Commander - The complete solution for node.js command-line interfaces.
• C++ Colors - A collection of namespaces (ANSI escape code for colors) and functions that will help you to style and bring life to your console outputs.

📝 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - See the LICENSE for more information.