net.sf.mmm.util.cli.api

Annotation Type CliArgument

@Retention(value=RUNTIME)
 @Documented
 @Target(value={FIELD,METHOD})
public @interface CliArgument

A CliArgument is used to annotate a property (member variable of some class or setter-method) that should be set from a main-program via a commandline argument. Unlike CliOption a CliArgument is NOT triggered by its name but is identified by its position. The first commandline parameter that is no option or occurs after the argument "--" is treated as the first argument and further parameters can also only be arguments. Additionally the last CliArgument -property can have the type List if a proper generic is used to declare the item-type.
E.g. a program Foo may have one argument of type List< File> and you invoke Foo file1 file2 file3 then the property is set to a List equivalent to {new File("file1"), new File("file2"), new File("file3")}.
ATTENTION:
Whenever possible prefer a CliOption over a CliArgument. However having a single CliArgument is just fine. But having multiple arguments together in some mode can cause maintenance trouble. This is only supported to avoid limitations (e.g. if you want to implement something like "grep pattern [file]+") but NOT recommended.

Since:

1.0.0

Author:

Joerg Hohwiller (hohwille at users.sourceforge.net)

Field Summary

Fields

Modifier and Type	Fields and Description
static String	ID_FIRST Symbolic name used for addCloseTo() to identify the first argument.
static String	ID_LAST Symbolic name used for addCloseTo() to identify the last argument.

Required Element Summary

Required Elements

Modifier and Type	Required Element and Description
String	name The name of the argument used for help usage output.
String	usage The description of this argument for help usage.

Optional Element Summary

Optional Elements

Modifier and Type	Optional Element and Description
boolean	addAfter Determines if this CliArgument should be add after ( true) or before ( false) the argument identified by addCloseTo().
String	addCloseTo The name of the argument where to add this CliArgument in the list of arguments.
CliContainerStyle	containerStyle The style of this argument if it has a container type.
String	id The ID of the argument used to identify the argument e.g.
String	mode The mode of this argument.
boolean	required The flag that indicates if this argument is required.

Field Detail

ID_FIRST

public static final String ID_FIRST

Symbolic name used for addCloseTo() to identify the first argument.

ID_LAST

public static final String ID_LAST

Symbolic name used for addCloseTo() to identify the last argument.

Element Detail

name

public abstract String name

The name of the argument used for help usage output.

usage

public abstract String usage

The description of this argument for help usage. It should be an internationalized message that will be localized using NlsMessage. NLS-arguments are "default" for the default value.

id

public abstract String id

The ID of the argument used to identify the argument e.g. via addCloseTo(). The default is the empty string that is treated as if the ID is set to the same value as name().

Default:

""

addAfter

public abstract boolean addAfter

Determines if this CliArgument should be add after ( true) or before ( false) the argument identified by addCloseTo().

Default:

true

addCloseTo

public abstract String addCloseTo

The name of the argument where to add this CliArgument in the list of arguments. The default is ID_LAST.

See Also:

ID_FIRST, ID_LAST

Default:

"#last"

mode

public abstract String mode

The mode of this argument.

See Also:

CliOption.mode()

Default:

"default"

required

public abstract boolean required

The flag that indicates if this argument is required. The default value is true. Use a value of false to make this argument optional within it's mode.
ATTENTION:
Avoid optional arguments and use options instead. If you use optional arguments anyway, please note that potentially following options also need to be optional then.

See Also:

CliMode.parentIds()

Default:

true

containerStyle

public abstract CliContainerStyle containerStyle

The style of this argument if it has a container type. The default is CliContainerStyle.DEFAULT.

See Also:

CliStyle.containerStyle()

Default:

net.sf.mmm.util.cli.api.CliContainerStyle.DEFAULT