minus-h

Add help generation to APIs created with Node's util.parseArgs() function.

Installation

npm install minus-h

API

parseArgsWithHelp() is a function that wraps util.parseArgs(), adding a "-h,--help" argument. It takes one or two arguments. The first argument is an augmented version of the options passed to util.parseArgs(), with descriptions provided for options as well as the command as a whole. The second optional argument is options for line wrapping. The wrapping width defaults to your terminal width (via process.stdout.columns).

import {parseArgsWithHelp} from 'minus-h'

parseArgsWithHelp({
  description: 'A command that does something very interesting',
  argumentName: 'files',
  argumentDescription: 'the files to be processed',
  allowPositionals: true,
  options: {
    encoding: {
      type: 'string',
      argumentName: 'encoding',
      description: 'encoding for files read or written',
      choices: ["utf8", "base64"]
    },
  },
}, { width: 80 })

node example.js --help outputs the following to stderr, before exiting with exit code 64:

Usage: example [options] [files]

A command that does something very interesting

Arguments:
  files                  the files to be processed

Options:
  --encoding <encoding>  encoding for files read or written (choices: "utf8",
                         "base64") Default: "utf8"
  -h,--help              display help for command

The usage() function takes the same two parameters. It always writes help information to output, then exits. It is useful if you've detected a higher level error condition with your input parameters, and want to re-iterate the usage information to users as if they had used --help.

Testing

Two more parameters may be added to the configuration parameter:

• outputStream: a writable stream to write the help text to. Defaults to process.stderr. Only the write method is ever called.
• exit(): a function that takes a number that is called when output is complete. Defaults to process.exit.

These options are useful during testing so that you can catch the help text that would have been written, and prevent your test harness from actually exiting.