Argumentative

Parses the argv array.

Installation

You can install Argumentative with npm:

npm install argumentative

You can also clone the repository with Git:

git clone https://github.com/djalbat/argumentative.git

There are no dependencies to install.

Usage

Aside from some string utilities, there is only one parseArgv() function. It takes the argv array and an optional map of abbreviations as its first and second arguments, respectively:

const { parseArgv } = require("argumentative");

const { argv } = process;

const abbreviations = {
  "h": "help",
  "v": "version"
};

const { commands, options } = parseArgv(argv, abbreviations);

...

The return value is a plain old JavaScript object with the following properties:

• interpreterPath - The first element of the argv array. This is fully qualified path of interpreter running the script.

• filePath - The second element of the argv array. This will be the fully qualified path of the script itself.

• args - An array of the remaining arguments, possibly empty if no command line arguments were passed.

• options - A map of option names to their values.

• commands - An array of the elements of the argv array that are not options.

If you pass a map of abbreviations, abbreviated names in the options map will be replaced with their corresponding unabbreviated names. If corresponding unabbreviated and abbreviated options are present, the latter are removed.

Options in kebab case will be converted to camel case. On the other hand, snake case is left as-is. If you want to convert snake case commands or options to camel case, by the way, you can make use of the snakeCaseToCamelCase() utility function. For example:

const argumentative = require("argumentative");

const { stringUtilities } = argumentative,
      { snakeCaseToCamelCase } = stringUtilities,
      { argv } = process;

let { commands } = parseArg(argv);

commands = commands.map((command) => snakeCaseToCamelCase(command));

...

Obviously you may only want to convert specific commands in this way rather than all of them, or not do so at all.

Examples

The command line arguments are given first, followed by the plain old JavaScript object that the parseArgv() function returns. Only the options and commands properties are given. These first two examples have no abbreviations.

A single command; and no options:

install

{
  "options": {},
  "commands": [
    "install"
  ]
}

A single command; a shorthand, boolean option; and a full length, string-valued option:

build -c --file-path=./main.js

{
  "options": {
    "c": true,
    "filePath": "./main.js"
  },
  "commands": [
    "build"
  ]
}

Note that the --file-path option becomes the camel case filePath.

No commands; two shorthand options, boolean and string-valued, respectively; and a full length, string-valued option:

-cf=./index.js --file-path=./main.js

{
  "options": {
    "compile": true,
    "filePath": "./main.js"
  },
  "commands": []
}

This last example has the following abbreviations:

{
  "c": "compile",
  "f": "file-path"
}

Note that the abbreviated option name c has been replaced by the corresponding unabbreviated name, whilst the abbreviated option f has been removed altogether.

Contact

• [email protected]