Boring

A command line argument parser without pirates

What you get with Boring

Input:

node app jump sideways --foo --bar=whee --super-cool=totally

Response:

{
  _: [ "jump", "sideways"],
  foo: true,
  bar: "whee",
  "super-cool": "totally"
}

Notice that parameters without --, if any, go into the _ array. Parameters with -- become properties in their own right.

How you get it

const argv = require('boring')({});

The options object is optional.

Options

Passthrough

It is a common convention to never treat any arguments that appear after a -- placeholder (by itself) as named options, even if they start with --.

Instead, the remainder are treated as positional arguments, no matter what.

To get this behavior with Boring, pass the end: true option:

const argv = require('boring')({
  end: true
});
console.log(argv);

Now, when you run this command:

node app hello --pretty -- --boring

You will get:

{
  _: [ 'hello', '--boring' ],
  pretty: true
}

What you don't get with boring

Single hyphens: nope

There is no support for old-fashioned "single-hyphen" options, like:

-x 50

Or:

-h

You can't tell which are boolean and which take arguments unless a specification is passed in. And that's not boring enough for us.

Usage messages, strictness, etc.: nope

These are very simple to implement, and if you're like us, you'd rather do it yourself.

Philosophy

We have nothing against full-featured, pirate-themed option parsers, which are very nice if you're into that sort of thing. We just find ourselves walking the plank when our options don't follow the pattern of what's easy to validate with piracy.

This simple module is too dumb to break.

About ApostropheCMS

Boring was created for use in ApostropheCMS, an open-source content management system built on node.js. If you like Boring you should definitely check out apostrophecms.org.

Support

Feel free to open issues on github.