Add support for -v to get the version

[chasenlehara]

Please add support for -v instead of -V to get the --version to be consistent with Node and npm (and a lot of other CLIs).

Related to #509

[chasenlehara]

@tj, why was this change made? I tried to track down why that change was made, but I couldn’t find anything. 😕

[jrylan]

I've always been really curious about this as well. I've been using this quick fix near the top of my CLI app to ensure -v works:

var vPos = process.argv.indexOf('-v')
if (vPos > -1) {
  process.argv[vPos] = '-V'
}

[sgen]

Probably because several tools use -v and --verbose for their verbose output flag and -V and --version for their version flag

[jimbuck]

Thanks @jrylan, that does the trick. But only if you are okay with the auto-generated help not mentioning -v specifically.

[dkern]

@sgen But nearly the whole environment around commander ueses -v for the version output. It would be more than usefull to have it the same way.

• node uses -v
• npm uses -v
• gulp uses -v
• grunt uses -v
• ...

It should at least be configurable. Maybe directly on the version command, like:

cli.version('1.0.0', '-v, --version');

[theoutlander]

I prefer -V for verbose. Also, is there an easy way to replace -V with -v? If I add a new option, it will show both. Maybe I'm missing something.

[mojavelinux]

This is already possible. It's just a customization:

.version('1.0.0', '-v, --version')

If the flags aren't specified, they just default to -V, --version.

One pattern I happen to like is to honor the -v when specified as the only argument, but then let it get used as an option when combined with other options and arguments (such as verbose).

[mojavelinux]

I think the API docs need to be updated to reflect the fact that flags can be specified as an override.

[ahmadawais]

Tried to look for a way to add that doc, couldn't. Thanks @mojavelinux for the tip.

[ahmadawais]

Wrote this instead.
https://gist.github.com/ahmadawais/da08521a51d9093edec46eeedc2065ac

[mojavelinux]

As it turns out, the flag can be overridden, but the program continues to respond only to a long name that resolves to "version". But this makes the help inaccurate.

I'll submit a patch to respect the name of the option specified in the method.

[mojavelinux]

Patches submitted!

[ahmadawais]

Seems to work just fine on my end without the patch? What am I missing?

[mojavelinux]

@ahmadawais You are using the default name for the option, which is version. If you wanted to use a different name, like --revision, then it wouldn't work. So this fix doesn't apply to your use case, but important nonetheless.

[ahmadawais]

Got it.