A simple and easy to use command line argument parser library for Zig.
Developers tend to either use
- The latest tagged release of Zig
- The latest build of Zigs master branch
Depending on which developer you are, you need to run different zig fetch
commands:
# Version of zig-clap that works with a tagged release of Zig
# Replace `<REPLACE ME>` with the version of zig-clap that you want to use
# See: https://github.com/Hejsil/zig-clap/releases
zig fetch --save https://github.com/Hejsil/zig-clap/archive/refs/tags/<REPLACE ME>.tar.gz
# Version of zig-clap that works with latest build of Zigs master branch
zig fetch --save git+https://github.com/Hejsil/zig-clap
Then add the following to build.zig
:
const clap = b.dependency("clap", .{});
exe.root_module.addImport("clap", clap.module("clap"));
- Short arguments
-a
- Chaining
-abc
wherea
andb
does not take values. - Multiple specifications are tallied (e.g.
-v -v
).
- Chaining
- Long arguments
--long
- Supports both passing values using spacing and
=
(-a 100
,-a=100
)- Short args also support passing values with no spacing or
=
(-a100
) - This all works with chaining (
-ba 100
,-ba=100
,-ba100
)
- Short args also support passing values with no spacing or
- Supports options that can be specified multiple times (
-e 1 -e 2 -e 3
) - Print help message from parameter specification.
- Parse help message to parameter specification.
Automatically generated API Reference for the project can be found at https://Hejsil.github.io/zig-clap. Note that Zig autodoc is in beta; the website may be broken or incomplete.
The simplest way to use this library is to just call the clap.parse
function.
pub fn main() !void {
var gpa = std.heap.GeneralPurposeAllocator(.{}){};
defer _ = gpa.deinit();
// First we specify what parameters our program can take.
// We can use `parseParamsComptime` to parse a string into an array of `Param(Help)`
const params = comptime clap.parseParamsComptime(
\\-h, --help Display this help and exit.
\\-n, --number <usize> An option parameter, which takes a value.
\\-s, --string <str>... An option parameter which can be specified multiple times.
\\<str>...
\\
);
// Initialize our diagnostics, which can be used for reporting useful errors.
// This is optional. You can also pass `.{}` to `clap.parse` if you don't
// care about the extra information `Diagnostics` provides.
var diag = clap.Diagnostic{};
var res = clap.parse(clap.Help, ¶ms, clap.parsers.default, .{
.diagnostic = &diag,
.allocator = gpa.allocator(),
}) catch |err| {
// Report useful error and exit
diag.report(std.io.getStdErr().writer(), err) catch {};
return err;
};
defer res.deinit();
if (res.args.help != 0)
std.debug.print("--help\n", .{});
if (res.args.number) |n|
std.debug.print("--number = {}\n", .{n});
for (res.args.string) |s|
std.debug.print("--string = {s}\n", .{s});
for (res.positionals[0]) |pos|
std.debug.print("{s}\n", .{pos});
}
const clap = @import("clap");
const std = @import("std");
The result will contain an args
field and a positionals
field. args
will have one field
for each none positional parameter of your program. The name of the field will be the longest
name of the parameter. positionals
be a tuple with one field for each positional parameter.
The fields in args
and postionals
are typed. The type is based on the name of the value the
parameter takes. Since --number
takes a usize
the field res.args.number
has the type usize
.
Note that this is only the case because clap.parsers.default
has a field called usize
which
contains a parser that returns usize
. You can pass in something other than
clap.parsers.default
if you want some other mapping.
pub fn main() !void {
var gpa = std.heap.GeneralPurposeAllocator(.{}){};
defer _ = gpa.deinit();
// First we specify what parameters our program can take.
// We can use `parseParamsComptime` to parse a string into an array of `Param(Help)`
const params = comptime clap.parseParamsComptime(
\\-h, --help Display this help and exit.
\\-n, --number <INT> An option parameter, which takes a value.
\\-a, --answer <ANSWER> An option parameter which takes an enum.
\\-s, --string <STR>... An option parameter which can be specified multiple times.
\\<FILE>...
\\
);
// Declare our own parsers which are used to map the argument strings to other
// types.
const YesNo = enum { yes, no };
const parsers = comptime .{
.STR = clap.parsers.string,
.FILE = clap.parsers.string,
.INT = clap.parsers.int(usize, 10),
.ANSWER = clap.parsers.enumeration(YesNo),
};
var diag = clap.Diagnostic{};
var res = clap.parse(clap.Help, ¶ms, parsers, .{
.diagnostic = &diag,
.allocator = gpa.allocator(),
// The assignment separator can be configured. `--number=1` and `--number:1` is now
// allowed.
.assignment_separators = "=:",
}) catch |err| {
diag.report(std.io.getStdErr().writer(), err) catch {};
return err;
};
defer res.deinit();
if (res.args.help != 0)
std.debug.print("--help\n", .{});
if (res.args.number) |n|
std.debug.print("--number = {}\n", .{n});
if (res.args.answer) |a|
std.debug.print("--answer = {s}\n", .{@tagName(a)});
for (res.args.string) |s|
std.debug.print("--string = {s}\n", .{s});
for (res.positionals[0]) |pos|
std.debug.print("{s}\n", .{pos});
}
const clap = @import("clap");
const std = @import("std");
There is an option for clap.parse
and clap.parseEx
called terminating_positional
. It allows
for users of clap
to implement subcommands in their cli application:
// These are our subcommands
const SubCommands = enum {
help,
math,
};
const main_parsers = .{
.command = clap.parsers.enumeration(SubCommands),
};
// The parameters for main. Parameters for the subcommands are specified further down
const main_params = clap.parseParamsComptime(
\\-h, --help Display this help and exit.
\\<command>
\\
);
// To pass around arguments returned by clap, `clap.Result` and `clap.ResultEx` can be used to
// get the return type of `clap.parse` and `clap.parseEx`
const MainArgs = clap.ResultEx(clap.Help, &main_params, main_parsers);
pub fn main() !void {
var gpa_state = std.heap.GeneralPurposeAllocator(.{}){};
const gpa = gpa_state.allocator();
defer _ = gpa_state.deinit();
var iter = try std.process.ArgIterator.initWithAllocator(gpa);
defer iter.deinit();
_ = iter.next();
var diag = clap.Diagnostic{};
var res = clap.parseEx(clap.Help, &main_params, main_parsers, &iter, .{
.diagnostic = &diag,
.allocator = gpa,
// Terminate the parsing of arguments after parsing the first positional (0 is passed
// here because parsed positionals are, like slices and arrays, indexed starting at 0).
//
// This will terminate the parsing after parsing the subcommand enum and leave `iter`
// not fully consumed. It can then be reused to parse the arguments for subcommands
.terminating_positional = 0,
}) catch |err| {
diag.report(std.io.getStdErr().writer(), err) catch {};
return err;
};
defer res.deinit();
if (res.args.help != 0)
std.debug.print("--help\n", .{});
const command = res.positionals[0] orelse return error.MissingCommand;
switch (command) {
.help => std.debug.print("--help\n", .{}),
.math => try mathMain(gpa, &iter, res),
}
}
fn mathMain(gpa: std.mem.Allocator, iter: *std.process.ArgIterator, main_args: MainArgs) !void {
// The parent arguments are not used it, but there are cases where it might be useful, so
// the example shows how to pass the arguments around.
_ = main_args;
// The parameters for the subcommand
const params = comptime clap.parseParamsComptime(
\\-h, --help Display this help and exit.
\\-a, --add Add the two numbers
\\-s, --sub Subtract the two numbers
\\<isize>
\\<isize>
\\
);
// Here we pass the partially parsed argument iterator
var diag = clap.Diagnostic{};
var res = clap.parseEx(clap.Help, ¶ms, clap.parsers.default, iter, .{
.diagnostic = &diag,
.allocator = gpa,
}) catch |err| {
diag.report(std.io.getStdErr().writer(), err) catch {};
return err;
};
defer res.deinit();
const a = res.positionals[0] orelse return error.MissingArg1;
const b = res.positionals[1] orelse return error.MissingArg1;
if (res.args.help != 0)
std.debug.print("--help\n", .{});
if (res.args.add != 0)
std.debug.print("added: {}\n", .{a + b});
if (res.args.sub != 0)
std.debug.print("subtracted: {}\n", .{a - b});
}
const clap = @import("clap");
const std = @import("std");
The streaming.Clap
is the base of all the other parsers. It's a streaming parser that uses an
args.Iterator
to provide it with arguments lazily.
pub fn main() !void {
const allocator = std.heap.page_allocator;
// First we specify what parameters our program can take.
const params = [_]clap.Param(u8){
.{
.id = 'h',
.names = .{ .short = 'h', .long = "help" },
},
.{
.id = 'n',
.names = .{ .short = 'n', .long = "number" },
.takes_value = .one,
},
.{ .id = 'f', .takes_value = .one },
};
var iter = try std.process.ArgIterator.initWithAllocator(allocator);
defer iter.deinit();
// Skip exe argument
_ = iter.next();
// Initialize our diagnostics, which can be used for reporting useful errors.
// This is optional. You can also leave the `diagnostic` field unset if you
// don't care about the extra information `Diagnostic` provides.
var diag = clap.Diagnostic{};
var parser = clap.streaming.Clap(u8, std.process.ArgIterator){
.params = ¶ms,
.iter = &iter,
.diagnostic = &diag,
};
// Because we use a streaming parser, we have to consume each argument parsed individually.
while (parser.next() catch |err| {
// Report useful error and exit
diag.report(std.io.getStdErr().writer(), err) catch {};
return err;
}) |arg| {
// arg.param will point to the parameter which matched the argument.
switch (arg.param.id) {
'h' => std.debug.print("Help!\n", .{}),
'n' => std.debug.print("--number = {s}\n", .{arg.value.?}),
// arg.value == null, if arg.param.takes_value == .none.
// Otherwise, arg.value is the value passed with the argument, such as "-a=10"
// or "-a 10".
'f' => std.debug.print("{s}\n", .{arg.value.?}),
else => unreachable,
}
}
}
const clap = @import("clap");
const std = @import("std");
Currently, this parser is the only parser that allows an array of Param
that
is generated at runtime.
The help
prints a simple list of all parameters the program can take. It expects the
Id
to have a description
method and an value
method so that it can provide that
in the output. HelpOptions
is passed to help
to control how the help message is
printed.
pub fn main() !void {
var gpa = std.heap.GeneralPurposeAllocator(.{}){};
defer _ = gpa.deinit();
const params = comptime clap.parseParamsComptime(
\\-h, --help Display this help and exit.
\\-v, --version Output version information and exit.
\\
);
var res = try clap.parse(clap.Help, ¶ms, clap.parsers.default, .{
.allocator = gpa.allocator(),
});
defer res.deinit();
// `clap.help` is a function that can print a simple help message. It can print any `Param`
// where `Id` has a `description` and `value` method (`Param(Help)` is one such parameter).
// The last argument contains options as to how `help` should print those parameters. Using
// `.{}` means the default options.
if (res.args.help != 0)
return clap.help(std.io.getStdErr().writer(), clap.Help, ¶ms, .{});
}
const clap = @import("clap");
const std = @import("std");
$ zig-out/bin/help --help
-h, --help
Display this help and exit.
-v, --version
Output version information and exit.
The usage
prints a small abbreviated version of the help message. It expects the Id
to have a value
method so it can provide that in the output.
pub fn main() !void {
var gpa = std.heap.GeneralPurposeAllocator(.{}){};
defer _ = gpa.deinit();
const params = comptime clap.parseParamsComptime(
\\-h, --help Display this help and exit.
\\-v, --version Output version information and exit.
\\ --value <str> An option parameter, which takes a value.
\\
);
var res = try clap.parse(clap.Help, ¶ms, clap.parsers.default, .{
.allocator = gpa.allocator(),
});
defer res.deinit();
// `clap.usage` is a function that can print a simple help message. It can print any `Param`
// where `Id` has a `value` method (`Param(Help)` is one such parameter).
if (res.args.help != 0)
return clap.usage(std.io.getStdErr().writer(), clap.Help, ¶ms);
}
const clap = @import("clap");
const std = @import("std");
$ zig-out/bin/usage --help
[-hv] [--value <str>]