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11<div class="doc_title">
12 CommandLine 2.0 Library Manual
13</div>
14
15<ol>
16 <li><a href="#introduction">Introduction</a></li>
17
18 <li><a href="#quickstart">Quick Start Guide</a>
19 <ol>
20 <li><a href="#bool">Boolean Arguments</a></li>
21 <li><a href="#alias">Argument Aliases</a></li>
22 <li><a href="#onealternative">Selecting an alternative from a
23 set of possibilities</a></li>
24 <li><a href="#namedalternatives">Named alternatives</a></li>
25 <li><a href="#list">Parsing a list of options</a></li>
26 <li><a href="#bits">Collecting options as a set of flags</a></li>
27 <li><a href="#description">Adding freeform text to help output</a></li>
28 </ol></li>
29
30 <li><a href="#referenceguide">Reference Guide</a>
31 <ol>
32 <li><a href="#positional">Positional Arguments</a>
33 <ul>
34 <li><a href="#--">Specifying positional options with hyphens</a></li>
35 <li><a href="#getPosition">Determining absolute position with
36 getPosition</a></li>
37 <li><a href="#cl::ConsumeAfter">The <tt>cl::ConsumeAfter</tt>
38 modifier</a></li>
39 </ul></li>
40
41 <li><a href="#storage">Internal vs External Storage</a></li>
42
43 <li><a href="#attributes">Option Attributes</a></li>
44
45 <li><a href="#modifiers">Option Modifiers</a>
46 <ul>
Anton Korobeynikov1c1e9002008-02-20 12:38:31 +000047 <li><a href="#hiding">Hiding an option from <tt>--help</tt>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +000048 output</a></li>
49 <li><a href="#numoccurrences">Controlling the number of occurrences
50 required and allowed</a></li>
51 <li><a href="#valrequired">Controlling whether or not a value must be
52 specified</a></li>
53 <li><a href="#formatting">Controlling other formatting options</a></li>
54 <li><a href="#misc">Miscellaneous option modifiers</a></li>
Mikhail Glushenkov7015ef82008-04-28 16:44:25 +000055 <li><a href="#response">Response files</a></li>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +000056 </ul></li>
57
58 <li><a href="#toplevel">Top-Level Classes and Functions</a>
59 <ul>
Anton Korobeynikov1c1e9002008-02-20 12:38:31 +000060 <li><a href="#cl::ParseCommandLineOptions">The
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +000061 <tt>cl::ParseCommandLineOptions</tt> function</a></li>
Anton Korobeynikov1c1e9002008-02-20 12:38:31 +000062 <li><a href="#cl::ParseEnvironmentOptions">The
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +000063 <tt>cl::ParseEnvironmentOptions</tt> function</a></li>
Chris Lattner7b14b982007-12-19 19:48:49 +000064 <li><a href="#cl::SetVersionPrinter">The <tt>cl::SetVersionPrinter</tt>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +000065 function</a></li>
66 <li><a href="#cl::opt">The <tt>cl::opt</tt> class</a></li>
67 <li><a href="#cl::list">The <tt>cl::list</tt> class</a></li>
68 <li><a href="#cl::bits">The <tt>cl::bits</tt> class</a></li>
69 <li><a href="#cl::alias">The <tt>cl::alias</tt> class</a></li>
70 <li><a href="#cl::extrahelp">The <tt>cl::extrahelp</tt> class</a></li>
71 </ul></li>
72
73 <li><a href="#builtinparsers">Builtin parsers</a>
74 <ul>
75 <li><a href="#genericparser">The Generic <tt>parser&lt;t&gt;</tt>
76 parser</a></li>
77 <li><a href="#boolparser">The <tt>parser&lt;bool&gt;</tt>
78 specialization</a></li>
79 <li><a href="#boolOrDefaultparser">The <tt>parser&lt;boolOrDefault&gt;</tt>
80 specialization</a></li>
81 <li><a href="#stringparser">The <tt>parser&lt;string&gt;</tt>
82 specialization</a></li>
83 <li><a href="#intparser">The <tt>parser&lt;int&gt;</tt>
84 specialization</a></li>
85 <li><a href="#doubleparser">The <tt>parser&lt;double&gt;</tt> and
86 <tt>parser&lt;float&gt;</tt> specializations</a></li>
87 </ul></li>
88 </ol></li>
89 <li><a href="#extensionguide">Extension Guide</a>
90 <ol>
91 <li><a href="#customparser">Writing a custom parser</a></li>
92 <li><a href="#explotingexternal">Exploiting external storage</a></li>
Anton Korobeynikov1c1e9002008-02-20 12:38:31 +000093 <li><a href="#dynamicopts">Dynamically adding command line
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +000094 options</a></li>
95 </ol></li>
96</ol>
97
98<div class="doc_author">
99 <p>Written by <a href="mailto:sabre@nondot.org">Chris Lattner</a></p>
100</div>
101
102<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
103<div class="doc_section">
104 <a name="introduction">Introduction</a>
105</div>
106<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
107
108<div class="doc_text">
109
110<p>This document describes the CommandLine argument processing library. It will
111show you how to use it, and what it can do. The CommandLine library uses a
112declarative approach to specifying the command line options that your program
113takes. By default, these options declarations implicitly hold the value parsed
114for the option declared (of course this <a href="#storage">can be
115changed</a>).</p>
116
117<p>Although there are a <b>lot</b> of command line argument parsing libraries
118out there in many different languages, none of them fit well with what I needed.
119By looking at the features and problems of other libraries, I designed the
120CommandLine library to have the following features:</p>
121
122<ol>
123<li>Speed: The CommandLine library is very quick and uses little resources. The
124parsing time of the library is directly proportional to the number of arguments
125parsed, not the the number of options recognized. Additionally, command line
126argument values are captured transparently into user defined global variables,
127which can be accessed like any other variable (and with the same
128performance).</li>
129
130<li>Type Safe: As a user of CommandLine, you don't have to worry about
131remembering the type of arguments that you want (is it an int? a string? a
132bool? an enum?) and keep casting it around. Not only does this help prevent
133error prone constructs, it also leads to dramatically cleaner source code.</li>
134
135<li>No subclasses required: To use CommandLine, you instantiate variables that
136correspond to the arguments that you would like to capture, you don't subclass a
137parser. This means that you don't have to write <b>any</b> boilerplate
138code.</li>
139
140<li>Globally accessible: Libraries can specify command line arguments that are
141automatically enabled in any tool that links to the library. This is possible
Chris Lattner00e02f62008-01-09 19:28:50 +0000142because the application doesn't have to keep a list of arguments to pass to
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000143the parser. This also makes supporting <a href="#dynamicopts">dynamically
144loaded options</a> trivial.</li>
145
146<li>Cleaner: CommandLine supports enum and other types directly, meaning that
147there is less error and more security built into the library. You don't have to
148worry about whether your integral command line argument accidentally got
149assigned a value that is not valid for your enum type.</li>
150
151<li>Powerful: The CommandLine library supports many different types of
152arguments, from simple <a href="#boolparser">boolean flags</a> to <a
153href="#cl::opt">scalars arguments</a> (<a href="#stringparser">strings</a>, <a
154href="#intparser">integers</a>, <a href="#genericparser">enums</a>, <a
155href="#doubleparser">doubles</a>), to <a href="#cl::list">lists of
156arguments</a>. This is possible because CommandLine is...</li>
157
158<li>Extensible: It is very simple to add a new argument type to CommandLine.
159Simply specify the parser that you want to use with the command line option when
160you declare it. <a href="#customparser">Custom parsers</a> are no problem.</li>
161
162<li>Labor Saving: The CommandLine library cuts down on the amount of grunt work
163that you, the user, have to do. For example, it automatically provides a
164<tt>--help</tt> option that shows the available command line options for your
165tool. Additionally, it does most of the basic correctness checking for
166you.</li>
167
168<li>Capable: The CommandLine library can handle lots of different forms of
169options often found in real programs. For example, <a
170href="#positional">positional</a> arguments, <tt>ls</tt> style <a
171href="#cl::Grouping">grouping</a> options (to allow processing '<tt>ls
172-lad</tt>' naturally), <tt>ld</tt> style <a href="#cl::Prefix">prefix</a>
173options (to parse '<tt>-lmalloc -L/usr/lib</tt>'), and <a
174href="#cl::ConsumeAfter">interpreter style options</a>.</li>
175
176</ol>
177
178<p>This document will hopefully let you jump in and start using CommandLine in
179your utility quickly and painlessly. Additionally it should be a simple
180reference manual to figure out how stuff works. If it is failing in some area
181(or you want an extension to the library), nag the author, <a
182href="mailto:sabre@nondot.org">Chris Lattner</a>.</p>
183
184</div>
185
186<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
187<div class="doc_section">
188 <a name="quickstart">Quick Start Guide</a>
189</div>
190<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
191
192<div class="doc_text">
193
194<p>This section of the manual runs through a simple CommandLine'ification of a
195basic compiler tool. This is intended to show you how to jump into using the
196CommandLine library in your own program, and show you some of the cool things it
197can do.</p>
198
199<p>To start out, you need to include the CommandLine header file into your
200program:</p>
201
202<div class="doc_code"><pre>
203 #include "llvm/Support/CommandLine.h"
204</pre></div>
205
206<p>Additionally, you need to add this as the first line of your main
207program:</p>
208
209<div class="doc_code"><pre>
210int main(int argc, char **argv) {
211 <a href="#cl::ParseCommandLineOptions">cl::ParseCommandLineOptions</a>(argc, argv);
212 ...
213}
214</pre></div>
215
216<p>... which actually parses the arguments and fills in the variable
217declarations.</p>
218
219<p>Now that you are ready to support command line arguments, we need to tell the
Chris Lattner00e02f62008-01-09 19:28:50 +0000220system which ones we want, and what type of arguments they are. The CommandLine
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000221library uses a declarative syntax to model command line arguments with the
222global variable declarations that capture the parsed values. This means that
223for every command line option that you would like to support, there should be a
224global variable declaration to capture the result. For example, in a compiler,
Chris Lattner00e02f62008-01-09 19:28:50 +0000225we would like to support the Unix-standard '<tt>-o &lt;filename&gt;</tt>' option
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000226to specify where to put the output. With the CommandLine library, this is
227represented like this:</p>
228
229<a name="value_desc_example"></a>
230<div class="doc_code"><pre>
231<a href="#cl::opt">cl::opt</a>&lt;string&gt; OutputFilename("<i>o</i>", <a href="#cl::desc">cl::desc</a>("<i>Specify output filename</i>"), <a href="#cl::value_desc">cl::value_desc</a>("<i>filename</i>"));
232</pre></div>
233
234<p>This declares a global variable "<tt>OutputFilename</tt>" that is used to
235capture the result of the "<tt>o</tt>" argument (first parameter). We specify
236that this is a simple scalar option by using the "<tt><a
237href="#cl::opt">cl::opt</a></tt>" template (as opposed to the <a
238href="#list">"<tt>cl::list</tt> template</a>), and tell the CommandLine library
239that the data type that we are parsing is a string.</p>
240
241<p>The second and third parameters (which are optional) are used to specify what
242to output for the "<tt>--help</tt>" option. In this case, we get a line that
243looks like this:</p>
244
245<div class="doc_code"><pre>
246USAGE: compiler [options]
247
248OPTIONS:
249 -help - display available options (--help-hidden for more)
250 <b>-o &lt;filename&gt; - Specify output filename</b>
251</pre></div>
252
253<p>Because we specified that the command line option should parse using the
254<tt>string</tt> data type, the variable declared is automatically usable as a
255real string in all contexts that a normal C++ string object may be used. For
256example:</p>
257
258<div class="doc_code"><pre>
259 ...
Chris Lattnerb917bc92008-03-30 16:59:21 +0000260 std::ofstream Output(OutputFilename.c_str());
261 if (Output.good()) ...
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000262 ...
263</pre></div>
264
265<p>There are many different options that you can use to customize the command
266line option handling library, but the above example shows the general interface
267to these options. The options can be specified in any order, and are specified
268with helper functions like <a href="#cl::desc"><tt>cl::desc(...)</tt></a>, so
269there are no positional dependencies to remember. The available options are
270discussed in detail in the <a href="#referenceguide">Reference Guide</a>.</p>
271
272<p>Continuing the example, we would like to have our compiler take an input
273filename as well as an output filename, but we do not want the input filename to
274be specified with a hyphen (ie, not <tt>-filename.c</tt>). To support this
275style of argument, the CommandLine library allows for <a
276href="#positional">positional</a> arguments to be specified for the program.
277These positional arguments are filled with command line parameters that are not
278in option form. We use this feature like this:</p>
279
280<div class="doc_code"><pre>
281<a href="#cl::opt">cl::opt</a>&lt;string&gt; InputFilename(<a href="#cl::Positional">cl::Positional</a>, <a href="#cl::desc">cl::desc</a>("<i>&lt;input file&gt;</i>"), <a href="#cl::init">cl::init</a>("<i>-</i>"));
282</pre></div>
283
284<p>This declaration indicates that the first positional argument should be
285treated as the input filename. Here we use the <tt><a
286href="#cl::init">cl::init</a></tt> option to specify an initial value for the
287command line option, which is used if the option is not specified (if you do not
288specify a <tt><a href="#cl::init">cl::init</a></tt> modifier for an option, then
289the default constructor for the data type is used to initialize the value).
290Command line options default to being optional, so if we would like to require
291that the user always specify an input filename, we would add the <tt><a
292href="#cl::Required">cl::Required</a></tt> flag, and we could eliminate the
293<tt><a href="#cl::init">cl::init</a></tt> modifier, like this:</p>
294
295<div class="doc_code"><pre>
296<a href="#cl::opt">cl::opt</a>&lt;string&gt; InputFilename(<a href="#cl::Positional">cl::Positional</a>, <a href="#cl::desc">cl::desc</a>("<i>&lt;input file&gt;</i>"), <b><a href="#cl::Required">cl::Required</a></b>);
297</pre></div>
298
299<p>Again, the CommandLine library does not require the options to be specified
300in any particular order, so the above declaration is equivalent to:</p>
301
302<div class="doc_code"><pre>
303<a href="#cl::opt">cl::opt</a>&lt;string&gt; InputFilename(<a href="#cl::Positional">cl::Positional</a>, <a href="#cl::Required">cl::Required</a>, <a href="#cl::desc">cl::desc</a>("<i>&lt;input file&gt;</i>"));
304</pre></div>
305
306<p>By simply adding the <tt><a href="#cl::Required">cl::Required</a></tt> flag,
307the CommandLine library will automatically issue an error if the argument is not
308specified, which shifts all of the command line option verification code out of
309your application into the library. This is just one example of how using flags
310can alter the default behaviour of the library, on a per-option basis. By
311adding one of the declarations above, the <tt>--help</tt> option synopsis is now
312extended to:</p>
313
314<div class="doc_code"><pre>
315USAGE: compiler [options] <b>&lt;input file&gt;</b>
316
317OPTIONS:
318 -help - display available options (--help-hidden for more)
319 -o &lt;filename&gt; - Specify output filename
320</pre></div>
321
322<p>... indicating that an input filename is expected.</p>
323
324</div>
325
326<!-- ======================================================================= -->
327<div class="doc_subsection">
328 <a name="bool">Boolean Arguments</a>
329</div>
330
331<div class="doc_text">
332
333<p>In addition to input and output filenames, we would like the compiler example
334to support three boolean flags: "<tt>-f</tt>" to force overwriting of the output
335file, "<tt>--quiet</tt>" to enable quiet mode, and "<tt>-q</tt>" for backwards
336compatibility with some of our users. We can support these by declaring options
337of boolean type like this:</p>
338
339<div class="doc_code"><pre>
340<a href="#cl::opt">cl::opt</a>&lt;bool&gt; Force ("<i>f</i>", <a href="#cl::desc">cl::desc</a>("<i>Overwrite output files</i>"));
341<a href="#cl::opt">cl::opt</a>&lt;bool&gt; Quiet ("<i>quiet</i>", <a href="#cl::desc">cl::desc</a>("<i>Don't print informational messages</i>"));
342<a href="#cl::opt">cl::opt</a>&lt;bool&gt; Quiet2("<i>q</i>", <a href="#cl::desc">cl::desc</a>("<i>Don't print informational messages</i>"), <a href="#cl::Hidden">cl::Hidden</a>);
343</pre></div>
344
345<p>This does what you would expect: it declares three boolean variables
346("<tt>Force</tt>", "<tt>Quiet</tt>", and "<tt>Quiet2</tt>") to recognize these
347options. Note that the "<tt>-q</tt>" option is specified with the "<a
348href="#cl::Hidden"><tt>cl::Hidden</tt></a>" flag. This modifier prevents it
349from being shown by the standard "<tt>--help</tt>" output (note that it is still
350shown in the "<tt>--help-hidden</tt>" output).</p>
351
352<p>The CommandLine library uses a <a href="#builtinparsers">different parser</a>
353for different data types. For example, in the string case, the argument passed
354to the option is copied literally into the content of the string variable... we
355obviously cannot do that in the boolean case, however, so we must use a smarter
356parser. In the case of the boolean parser, it allows no options (in which case
357it assigns the value of true to the variable), or it allows the values
358"<tt>true</tt>" or "<tt>false</tt>" to be specified, allowing any of the
359following inputs:</p>
360
361<div class="doc_code"><pre>
362 compiler -f # No value, 'Force' == true
363 compiler -f=true # Value specified, 'Force' == true
364 compiler -f=TRUE # Value specified, 'Force' == true
365 compiler -f=FALSE # Value specified, 'Force' == false
366</pre></div>
367
368<p>... you get the idea. The <a href="#boolparser">bool parser</a> just turns
369the string values into boolean values, and rejects things like '<tt>compiler
370-f=foo</tt>'. Similarly, the <a href="#doubleparser">float</a>, <a
371href="#doubleparser">double</a>, and <a href="#intparser">int</a> parsers work
372like you would expect, using the '<tt>strtol</tt>' and '<tt>strtod</tt>' C
373library calls to parse the string value into the specified data type.</p>
374
375<p>With the declarations above, "<tt>compiler --help</tt>" emits this:</p>
376
377<div class="doc_code"><pre>
378USAGE: compiler [options] &lt;input file&gt;
379
380OPTIONS:
381 <b>-f - Overwrite output files</b>
382 -o - Override output filename
383 <b>-quiet - Don't print informational messages</b>
384 -help - display available options (--help-hidden for more)
385</pre></div>
386
Chris Lattner00e02f62008-01-09 19:28:50 +0000387<p>and "<tt>compiler --help-hidden</tt>" prints this:</p>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000388
389<div class="doc_code"><pre>
390USAGE: compiler [options] &lt;input file&gt;
391
392OPTIONS:
393 -f - Overwrite output files
394 -o - Override output filename
395 <b>-q - Don't print informational messages</b>
396 -quiet - Don't print informational messages
397 -help - display available options (--help-hidden for more)
398</pre></div>
399
400<p>This brief example has shown you how to use the '<tt><a
401href="#cl::opt">cl::opt</a></tt>' class to parse simple scalar command line
402arguments. In addition to simple scalar arguments, the CommandLine library also
403provides primitives to support CommandLine option <a href="#alias">aliases</a>,
404and <a href="#list">lists</a> of options.</p>
405
406</div>
407
408<!-- ======================================================================= -->
409<div class="doc_subsection">
410 <a name="alias">Argument Aliases</a>
411</div>
412
413<div class="doc_text">
414
415<p>So far, the example works well, except for the fact that we need to check the
416quiet condition like this now:</p>
417
418<div class="doc_code"><pre>
419...
420 if (!Quiet &amp;&amp; !Quiet2) printInformationalMessage(...);
421...
422</pre></div>
423
424<p>... which is a real pain! Instead of defining two values for the same
425condition, we can use the "<tt><a href="#cl::alias">cl::alias</a></tt>" class to make the "<tt>-q</tt>"
426option an <b>alias</b> for the "<tt>-quiet</tt>" option, instead of providing
427a value itself:</p>
428
429<div class="doc_code"><pre>
430<a href="#cl::opt">cl::opt</a>&lt;bool&gt; Force ("<i>f</i>", <a href="#cl::desc">cl::desc</a>("<i>Overwrite output files</i>"));
431<a href="#cl::opt">cl::opt</a>&lt;bool&gt; Quiet ("<i>quiet</i>", <a href="#cl::desc">cl::desc</a>("<i>Don't print informational messages</i>"));
432<a href="#cl::alias">cl::alias</a> QuietA("<i>q</i>", <a href="#cl::desc">cl::desc</a>("<i>Alias for -quiet</i>"), <a href="#cl::aliasopt">cl::aliasopt</a>(Quiet));
433</pre></div>
434
435<p>The third line (which is the only one we modified from above) defines a
Chris Lattner00e02f62008-01-09 19:28:50 +0000436"<tt>-q</tt>" alias that updates the "<tt>Quiet</tt>" variable (as specified by
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000437the <tt><a href="#cl::aliasopt">cl::aliasopt</a></tt> modifier) whenever it is
438specified. Because aliases do not hold state, the only thing the program has to
439query is the <tt>Quiet</tt> variable now. Another nice feature of aliases is
440that they automatically hide themselves from the <tt>-help</tt> output
441(although, again, they are still visible in the <tt>--help-hidden
442output</tt>).</p>
443
444<p>Now the application code can simply use:</p>
445
446<div class="doc_code"><pre>
447...
448 if (!Quiet) printInformationalMessage(...);
449...
450</pre></div>
451
452<p>... which is much nicer! The "<tt><a href="#cl::alias">cl::alias</a></tt>"
453can be used to specify an alternative name for any variable type, and has many
454uses.</p>
455
456</div>
457
458<!-- ======================================================================= -->
459<div class="doc_subsection">
460 <a name="onealternative">Selecting an alternative from a set of
461 possibilities</a>
462</div>
463
464<div class="doc_text">
465
Chris Lattner00e02f62008-01-09 19:28:50 +0000466<p>So far we have seen how the CommandLine library handles builtin types like
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000467<tt>std::string</tt>, <tt>bool</tt> and <tt>int</tt>, but how does it handle
468things it doesn't know about, like enums or '<tt>int*</tt>'s?</p>
469
Chris Lattner00e02f62008-01-09 19:28:50 +0000470<p>The answer is that it uses a table-driven generic parser (unless you specify
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000471your own parser, as described in the <a href="#extensionguide">Extension
472Guide</a>). This parser maps literal strings to whatever type is required, and
473requires you to tell it what this mapping should be.</p>
474
Chris Lattner00e02f62008-01-09 19:28:50 +0000475<p>Let's say that we would like to add four optimization levels to our
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000476optimizer, using the standard flags "<tt>-g</tt>", "<tt>-O0</tt>",
477"<tt>-O1</tt>", and "<tt>-O2</tt>". We could easily implement this with boolean
478options like above, but there are several problems with this strategy:</p>
479
480<ol>
481<li>A user could specify more than one of the options at a time, for example,
Chris Lattner00e02f62008-01-09 19:28:50 +0000482"<tt>compiler -O3 -O2</tt>". The CommandLine library would not be able to
483catch this erroneous input for us.</li>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000484
485<li>We would have to test 4 different variables to see which ones are set.</li>
486
487<li>This doesn't map to the numeric levels that we want... so we cannot easily
488see if some level &gt;= "<tt>-O1</tt>" is enabled.</li>
489
490</ol>
491
492<p>To cope with these problems, we can use an enum value, and have the
493CommandLine library fill it in with the appropriate level directly, which is
494used like this:</p>
495
496<div class="doc_code"><pre>
497enum OptLevel {
498 g, O1, O2, O3
499};
500
501<a href="#cl::opt">cl::opt</a>&lt;OptLevel&gt; OptimizationLevel(<a href="#cl::desc">cl::desc</a>("<i>Choose optimization level:</i>"),
502 <a href="#cl::values">cl::values</a>(
503 clEnumVal(g , "<i>No optimizations, enable debugging</i>"),
504 clEnumVal(O1, "<i>Enable trivial optimizations</i>"),
505 clEnumVal(O2, "<i>Enable default optimizations</i>"),
506 clEnumVal(O3, "<i>Enable expensive optimizations</i>"),
507 clEnumValEnd));
508
509...
510 if (OptimizationLevel &gt;= O2) doPartialRedundancyElimination(...);
511...
512</pre></div>
513
514<p>This declaration defines a variable "<tt>OptimizationLevel</tt>" of the
515"<tt>OptLevel</tt>" enum type. This variable can be assigned any of the values
516that are listed in the declaration (Note that the declaration list must be
Anton Korobeynikov1c1e9002008-02-20 12:38:31 +0000517terminated with the "<tt>clEnumValEnd</tt>" argument!). The CommandLine
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000518library enforces
519that the user can only specify one of the options, and it ensure that only valid
520enum values can be specified. The "<tt>clEnumVal</tt>" macros ensure that the
521command line arguments matched the enum values. With this option added, our
522help output now is:</p>
523
524<div class="doc_code"><pre>
525USAGE: compiler [options] &lt;input file&gt;
526
527OPTIONS:
528 <b>Choose optimization level:
529 -g - No optimizations, enable debugging
530 -O1 - Enable trivial optimizations
531 -O2 - Enable default optimizations
532 -O3 - Enable expensive optimizations</b>
533 -f - Overwrite output files
534 -help - display available options (--help-hidden for more)
535 -o &lt;filename&gt; - Specify output filename
536 -quiet - Don't print informational messages
537</pre></div>
538
539<p>In this case, it is sort of awkward that flag names correspond directly to
540enum names, because we probably don't want a enum definition named "<tt>g</tt>"
541in our program. Because of this, we can alternatively write this example like
542this:</p>
543
544<div class="doc_code"><pre>
545enum OptLevel {
546 Debug, O1, O2, O3
547};
548
549<a href="#cl::opt">cl::opt</a>&lt;OptLevel&gt; OptimizationLevel(<a href="#cl::desc">cl::desc</a>("<i>Choose optimization level:</i>"),
550 <a href="#cl::values">cl::values</a>(
551 clEnumValN(Debug, "g", "<i>No optimizations, enable debugging</i>"),
552 clEnumVal(O1 , "<i>Enable trivial optimizations</i>"),
553 clEnumVal(O2 , "<i>Enable default optimizations</i>"),
554 clEnumVal(O3 , "<i>Enable expensive optimizations</i>"),
555 clEnumValEnd));
556
557...
558 if (OptimizationLevel == Debug) outputDebugInfo(...);
559...
560</pre></div>
561
562<p>By using the "<tt>clEnumValN</tt>" macro instead of "<tt>clEnumVal</tt>", we
563can directly specify the name that the flag should get. In general a direct
564mapping is nice, but sometimes you can't or don't want to preserve the mapping,
565which is when you would use it.</p>
566
567</div>
568
569<!-- ======================================================================= -->
570<div class="doc_subsection">
571 <a name="namedalternatives">Named Alternatives</a>
572</div>
573
574<div class="doc_text">
575
576<p>Another useful argument form is a named alternative style. We shall use this
577style in our compiler to specify different debug levels that can be used.
578Instead of each debug level being its own switch, we want to support the
579following options, of which only one can be specified at a time:
580"<tt>--debug-level=none</tt>", "<tt>--debug-level=quick</tt>",
581"<tt>--debug-level=detailed</tt>". To do this, we use the exact same format as
582our optimization level flags, but we also specify an option name. For this
583case, the code looks like this:</p>
584
585<div class="doc_code"><pre>
586enum DebugLev {
587 nodebuginfo, quick, detailed
588};
589
590// Enable Debug Options to be specified on the command line
591<a href="#cl::opt">cl::opt</a>&lt;DebugLev&gt; DebugLevel("<i>debug_level</i>", <a href="#cl::desc">cl::desc</a>("<i>Set the debugging level:</i>"),
592 <a href="#cl::values">cl::values</a>(
593 clEnumValN(nodebuginfo, "none", "<i>disable debug information</i>"),
594 clEnumVal(quick, "<i>enable quick debug information</i>"),
595 clEnumVal(detailed, "<i>enable detailed debug information</i>"),
596 clEnumValEnd));
597</pre></div>
598
599<p>This definition defines an enumerated command line variable of type "<tt>enum
600DebugLev</tt>", which works exactly the same way as before. The difference here
601is just the interface exposed to the user of your program and the help output by
602the "<tt>--help</tt>" option:</p>
603
604<div class="doc_code"><pre>
605USAGE: compiler [options] &lt;input file&gt;
606
607OPTIONS:
608 Choose optimization level:
609 -g - No optimizations, enable debugging
610 -O1 - Enable trivial optimizations
611 -O2 - Enable default optimizations
612 -O3 - Enable expensive optimizations
613 <b>-debug_level - Set the debugging level:
614 =none - disable debug information
615 =quick - enable quick debug information
616 =detailed - enable detailed debug information</b>
617 -f - Overwrite output files
618 -help - display available options (--help-hidden for more)
619 -o &lt;filename&gt; - Specify output filename
620 -quiet - Don't print informational messages
621</pre></div>
622
623<p>Again, the only structural difference between the debug level declaration and
624the optimization level declaration is that the debug level declaration includes
625an option name (<tt>"debug_level"</tt>), which automatically changes how the
626library processes the argument. The CommandLine library supports both forms so
627that you can choose the form most appropriate for your application.</p>
628
629</div>
630
631<!-- ======================================================================= -->
632<div class="doc_subsection">
633 <a name="list">Parsing a list of options</a>
634</div>
635
636<div class="doc_text">
637
Chris Lattner00e02f62008-01-09 19:28:50 +0000638<p>Now that we have the standard run-of-the-mill argument types out of the way,
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000639lets get a little wild and crazy. Lets say that we want our optimizer to accept
640a <b>list</b> of optimizations to perform, allowing duplicates. For example, we
641might want to run: "<tt>compiler -dce -constprop -inline -dce -strip</tt>". In
642this case, the order of the arguments and the number of appearances is very
643important. This is what the "<tt><a href="#cl::list">cl::list</a></tt>"
644template is for. First, start by defining an enum of the optimizations that you
645would like to perform:</p>
646
647<div class="doc_code"><pre>
648enum Opts {
649 // 'inline' is a C++ keyword, so name it 'inlining'
650 dce, constprop, inlining, strip
651};
652</pre></div>
653
654<p>Then define your "<tt><a href="#cl::list">cl::list</a></tt>" variable:</p>
655
656<div class="doc_code"><pre>
657<a href="#cl::list">cl::list</a>&lt;Opts&gt; OptimizationList(<a href="#cl::desc">cl::desc</a>("<i>Available Optimizations:</i>"),
658 <a href="#cl::values">cl::values</a>(
659 clEnumVal(dce , "<i>Dead Code Elimination</i>"),
660 clEnumVal(constprop , "<i>Constant Propagation</i>"),
661 clEnumValN(inlining, "<i>inline</i>", "<i>Procedure Integration</i>"),
662 clEnumVal(strip , "<i>Strip Symbols</i>"),
663 clEnumValEnd));
664</pre></div>
665
666<p>This defines a variable that is conceptually of the type
667"<tt>std::vector&lt;enum Opts&gt;</tt>". Thus, you can access it with standard
668vector methods:</p>
669
670<div class="doc_code"><pre>
671 for (unsigned i = 0; i != OptimizationList.size(); ++i)
672 switch (OptimizationList[i])
673 ...
674</pre></div>
675
676<p>... to iterate through the list of options specified.</p>
677
678<p>Note that the "<tt><a href="#cl::list">cl::list</a></tt>" template is
679completely general and may be used with any data types or other arguments that
680you can use with the "<tt><a href="#cl::opt">cl::opt</a></tt>" template. One
681especially useful way to use a list is to capture all of the positional
682arguments together if there may be more than one specified. In the case of a
683linker, for example, the linker takes several '<tt>.o</tt>' files, and needs to
684capture them into a list. This is naturally specified as:</p>
685
686<div class="doc_code"><pre>
687...
688<a href="#cl::list">cl::list</a>&lt;std::string&gt; InputFilenames(<a href="#cl::Positional">cl::Positional</a>, <a href="#cl::desc">cl::desc</a>("&lt;Input files&gt;"), <a href="#cl::OneOrMore">cl::OneOrMore</a>);
689...
690</pre></div>
691
692<p>This variable works just like a "<tt>vector&lt;string&gt;</tt>" object. As
693such, accessing the list is simple, just like above. In this example, we used
694the <tt><a href="#cl::OneOrMore">cl::OneOrMore</a></tt> modifier to inform the
695CommandLine library that it is an error if the user does not specify any
696<tt>.o</tt> files on our command line. Again, this just reduces the amount of
697checking we have to do.</p>
698
699</div>
700
701<!-- ======================================================================= -->
702<div class="doc_subsection">
703 <a name="bits">Collecting options as a set of flags</a>
704</div>
705
706<div class="doc_text">
707
708<p>Instead of collecting sets of options in a list, it is also possible to
709gather information for enum values in a <b>bit vector</b>. The represention used by
710the <a href="#bits"><tt>cl::bits</tt></a> class is an <tt>unsigned</tt>
711integer. An enum value is represented by a 0/1 in the enum's ordinal value bit
712position. 1 indicating that the enum was specified, 0 otherwise. As each
713specified value is parsed, the resulting enum's bit is set in the option's bit
714vector:</p>
715
716<div class="doc_code"><pre>
717 <i>bits</i> |= 1 << (unsigned)<i>enum</i>;
718</pre></div>
719
720<p>Options that are specified multiple times are redundant. Any instances after
721the first are discarded.</p>
722
723<p>Reworking the above list example, we could replace <a href="#list">
724<tt>cl::list</tt></a> with <a href="#bits"><tt>cl::bits</tt></a>:</p>
725
726<div class="doc_code"><pre>
727<a href="#cl::bits">cl::bits</a>&lt;Opts&gt; OptimizationBits(<a href="#cl::desc">cl::desc</a>("<i>Available Optimizations:</i>"),
728 <a href="#cl::values">cl::values</a>(
729 clEnumVal(dce , "<i>Dead Code Elimination</i>"),
730 clEnumVal(constprop , "<i>Constant Propagation</i>"),
731 clEnumValN(inlining, "<i>inline</i>", "<i>Procedure Integration</i>"),
732 clEnumVal(strip , "<i>Strip Symbols</i>"),
733 clEnumValEnd));
734</pre></div>
735
736<p>To test to see if <tt>constprop</tt> was specified, we can use the
737<tt>cl:bits::isSet</tt> function:</p>
738
739<div class="doc_code"><pre>
740 if (OptimizationBits.isSet(constprop)) {
741 ...
742 }
743</pre></div>
744
745<p>It's also possible to get the raw bit vector using the
746<tt>cl::bits::getBits</tt> function:</p>
747
748<div class="doc_code"><pre>
749 unsigned bits = OptimizationBits.getBits();
750</pre></div>
751
752<p>Finally, if external storage is used, then the location specified must be of
753<b>type</b> <tt>unsigned</tt>. In all other ways a <a
Chris Lattner00e02f62008-01-09 19:28:50 +0000754href="#bits"><tt>cl::bits</tt></a> option is equivalent to a <a
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000755href="#list"> <tt>cl::list</tt></a> option.</p>
756
757</div>
758
759
760<!-- ======================================================================= -->
761<div class="doc_subsection">
762 <a name="description">Adding freeform text to help output</a>
763</div>
764
765<div class="doc_text">
766
767<p>As our program grows and becomes more mature, we may decide to put summary
768information about what it does into the help output. The help output is styled
769to look similar to a Unix <tt>man</tt> page, providing concise information about
770a program. Unix <tt>man</tt> pages, however often have a description about what
771the program does. To add this to your CommandLine program, simply pass a third
772argument to the <a
773href="#cl::ParseCommandLineOptions"><tt>cl::ParseCommandLineOptions</tt></a>
774call in main. This additional argument is then printed as the overview
775information for your program, allowing you to include any additional information
776that you want. For example:</p>
777
778<div class="doc_code"><pre>
779int main(int argc, char **argv) {
780 <a href="#cl::ParseCommandLineOptions">cl::ParseCommandLineOptions</a>(argc, argv, " CommandLine compiler example\n\n"
781 " This program blah blah blah...\n");
782 ...
783}
784</pre></div>
785
786<p>would yield the help output:</p>
787
788<div class="doc_code"><pre>
789<b>OVERVIEW: CommandLine compiler example
790
791 This program blah blah blah...</b>
792
793USAGE: compiler [options] &lt;input file&gt;
794
795OPTIONS:
796 ...
797 -help - display available options (--help-hidden for more)
798 -o &lt;filename&gt; - Specify output filename
799</pre></div>
800
801</div>
802
803
804<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
805<div class="doc_section">
806 <a name="referenceguide">Reference Guide</a>
807</div>
808<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
809
810<div class="doc_text">
811
812<p>Now that you know the basics of how to use the CommandLine library, this
813section will give you the detailed information you need to tune how command line
814options work, as well as information on more "advanced" command line option
815processing capabilities.</p>
816
817</div>
818
819<!-- ======================================================================= -->
820<div class="doc_subsection">
821 <a name="positional">Positional Arguments</a>
822</div>
823
824<div class="doc_text">
825
826<p>Positional arguments are those arguments that are not named, and are not
827specified with a hyphen. Positional arguments should be used when an option is
828specified by its position alone. For example, the standard Unix <tt>grep</tt>
829tool takes a regular expression argument, and an optional filename to search
830through (which defaults to standard input if a filename is not specified).
831Using the CommandLine library, this would be specified as:</p>
832
833<div class="doc_code"><pre>
834<a href="#cl::opt">cl::opt</a>&lt;string&gt; Regex (<a href="#cl::Positional">cl::Positional</a>, <a href="#cl::desc">cl::desc</a>("<i>&lt;regular expression&gt;</i>"), <a href="#cl::Required">cl::Required</a>);
835<a href="#cl::opt">cl::opt</a>&lt;string&gt; Filename(<a href="#cl::Positional">cl::Positional</a>, <a href="#cl::desc">cl::desc</a>("<i>&lt;input file&gt;</i>"), <a href="#cl::init">cl::init</a>("<i>-</i>"));
836</pre></div>
837
838<p>Given these two option declarations, the <tt>--help</tt> output for our grep
839replacement would look like this:</p>
840
841<div class="doc_code"><pre>
842USAGE: spiffygrep [options] <b>&lt;regular expression&gt; &lt;input file&gt;</b>
843
844OPTIONS:
845 -help - display available options (--help-hidden for more)
846</pre></div>
847
848<p>... and the resultant program could be used just like the standard
849<tt>grep</tt> tool.</p>
850
851<p>Positional arguments are sorted by their order of construction. This means
852that command line options will be ordered according to how they are listed in a
853.cpp file, but will not have an ordering defined if the positional arguments
854are defined in multiple .cpp files. The fix for this problem is simply to
855define all of your positional arguments in one .cpp file.</p>
856
857</div>
858
859
860<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
861<div class="doc_subsubsection">
862 <a name="--">Specifying positional options with hyphens</a>
863</div>
864
865<div class="doc_text">
866
867<p>Sometimes you may want to specify a value to your positional argument that
868starts with a hyphen (for example, searching for '<tt>-foo</tt>' in a file). At
869first, you will have trouble doing this, because it will try to find an argument
870named '<tt>-foo</tt>', and will fail (and single quotes will not save you).
871Note that the system <tt>grep</tt> has the same problem:</p>
872
873<div class="doc_code"><pre>
874 $ spiffygrep '-foo' test.txt
875 Unknown command line argument '-foo'. Try: spiffygrep --help'
876
877 $ grep '-foo' test.txt
878 grep: illegal option -- f
879 grep: illegal option -- o
880 grep: illegal option -- o
881 Usage: grep -hblcnsviw pattern file . . .
882</pre></div>
883
884<p>The solution for this problem is the same for both your tool and the system
885version: use the '<tt>--</tt>' marker. When the user specifies '<tt>--</tt>' on
886the command line, it is telling the program that all options after the
887'<tt>--</tt>' should be treated as positional arguments, not options. Thus, we
888can use it like this:</p>
889
890<div class="doc_code"><pre>
891 $ spiffygrep -- -foo test.txt
892 ...output...
893</pre></div>
894
895</div>
896
897<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
898<div class="doc_subsubsection">
899 <a name="getPosition">Determining absolute position with getPosition()</a>
900</div>
901<div class="doc_text">
902 <p>Sometimes an option can affect or modify the meaning of another option. For
903 example, consider <tt>gcc</tt>'s <tt>-x LANG</tt> option. This tells
904 <tt>gcc</tt> to ignore the suffix of subsequent positional arguments and force
905 the file to be interpreted as if it contained source code in language
Chris Lattner66041392008-04-01 18:02:36 +0000906 <tt>LANG</tt>. In order to handle this properly, you need to know the
Anton Korobeynikov1c1e9002008-02-20 12:38:31 +0000907 absolute position of each argument, especially those in lists, so their
908 interaction(s) can be applied correctly. This is also useful for options like
909 <tt>-llibname</tt> which is actually a positional argument that starts with
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000910 a dash.</p>
911 <p>So, generally, the problem is that you have two <tt>cl::list</tt> variables
912 that interact in some way. To ensure the correct interaction, you can use the
913 <tt>cl::list::getPosition(optnum)</tt> method. This method returns the
914 absolute position (as found on the command line) of the <tt>optnum</tt>
915 item in the <tt>cl::list</tt>.</p>
916 <p>The idiom for usage is like this:</p>
Anton Korobeynikov1c1e9002008-02-20 12:38:31 +0000917
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000918 <div class="doc_code"><pre>
919 static cl::list&lt;std::string&gt; Files(cl::Positional, cl::OneOrMore);
Chris Lattner00e02f62008-01-09 19:28:50 +0000920 static cl::list&lt;std::string&gt; Libraries("l", cl::ZeroOrMore);
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000921
922 int main(int argc, char**argv) {
923 // ...
924 std::vector&lt;std::string&gt;::iterator fileIt = Files.begin();
925 std::vector&lt;std::string&gt;::iterator libIt = Libraries.begin();
926 unsigned libPos = 0, filePos = 0;
927 while ( 1 ) {
928 if ( libIt != Libraries.end() )
929 libPos = Libraries.getPosition( libIt - Libraries.begin() );
930 else
931 libPos = 0;
932 if ( fileIt != Files.end() )
933 filePos = Files.getPosition( fileIt - Files.begin() );
934 else
935 filePos = 0;
936
937 if ( filePos != 0 &amp;&amp; (libPos == 0 || filePos &lt; libPos) ) {
938 // Source File Is next
939 ++fileIt;
940 }
941 else if ( libPos != 0 &amp;&amp; (filePos == 0 || libPos &lt; filePos) ) {
942 // Library is next
943 ++libIt;
944 }
945 else
946 break; // we're done with the list
947 }
948 }</pre></div>
949
950 <p>Note that, for compatibility reasons, the <tt>cl::opt</tt> also supports an
951 <tt>unsigned getPosition()</tt> option that will provide the absolute position
Anton Korobeynikov1c1e9002008-02-20 12:38:31 +0000952 of that option. You can apply the same approach as above with a
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000953 <tt>cl::opt</tt> and a <tt>cl::list</tt> option as you can with two lists.</p>
954</div>
955
956<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
957<div class="doc_subsubsection">
958 <a name="cl::ConsumeAfter">The <tt>cl::ConsumeAfter</tt> modifier</a>
959</div>
960
961<div class="doc_text">
962
963<p>The <tt>cl::ConsumeAfter</tt> <a href="#formatting">formatting option</a> is
964used to construct programs that use "interpreter style" option processing. With
965this style of option processing, all arguments specified after the last
966positional argument are treated as special interpreter arguments that are not
967interpreted by the command line argument.</p>
968
969<p>As a concrete example, lets say we are developing a replacement for the
970standard Unix Bourne shell (<tt>/bin/sh</tt>). To run <tt>/bin/sh</tt>, first
971you specify options to the shell itself (like <tt>-x</tt> which turns on trace
972output), then you specify the name of the script to run, then you specify
Chris Lattner00e02f62008-01-09 19:28:50 +0000973arguments to the script. These arguments to the script are parsed by the Bourne
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000974shell command line option processor, but are not interpreted as options to the
975shell itself. Using the CommandLine library, we would specify this as:</p>
976
977<div class="doc_code"><pre>
978<a href="#cl::opt">cl::opt</a>&lt;string&gt; Script(<a href="#cl::Positional">cl::Positional</a>, <a href="#cl::desc">cl::desc</a>("<i>&lt;input script&gt;</i>"), <a href="#cl::init">cl::init</a>("-"));
979<a href="#cl::list">cl::list</a>&lt;string&gt; Argv(<a href="#cl::ConsumeAfter">cl::ConsumeAfter</a>, <a href="#cl::desc">cl::desc</a>("<i>&lt;program arguments&gt;...</i>"));
980<a href="#cl::opt">cl::opt</a>&lt;bool&gt; Trace("<i>x</i>", <a href="#cl::desc">cl::desc</a>("<i>Enable trace output</i>"));
981</pre></div>
982
983<p>which automatically provides the help output:</p>
984
985<div class="doc_code"><pre>
986USAGE: spiffysh [options] <b>&lt;input script&gt; &lt;program arguments&gt;...</b>
987
988OPTIONS:
989 -help - display available options (--help-hidden for more)
990 <b>-x - Enable trace output</b>
991</pre></div>
992
993<p>At runtime, if we run our new shell replacement as `<tt>spiffysh -x test.sh
994-a -x -y bar</tt>', the <tt>Trace</tt> variable will be set to true, the
995<tt>Script</tt> variable will be set to "<tt>test.sh</tt>", and the
996<tt>Argv</tt> list will contain <tt>["-a", "-x", "-y", "bar"]</tt>, because they
997were specified after the last positional argument (which is the script
998name).</p>
999
1000<p>There are several limitations to when <tt>cl::ConsumeAfter</tt> options can
1001be specified. For example, only one <tt>cl::ConsumeAfter</tt> can be specified
1002per program, there must be at least one <a href="#positional">positional
1003argument</a> specified, there must not be any <a href="#cl::list">cl::list</a>
1004positional arguments, and the <tt>cl::ConsumeAfter</tt> option should be a <a
1005href="#cl::list">cl::list</a> option.</p>
1006
1007</div>
1008
1009<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1010<div class="doc_subsection">
1011 <a name="storage">Internal vs External Storage</a>
1012</div>
1013
1014<div class="doc_text">
1015
1016<p>By default, all command line options automatically hold the value that they
1017parse from the command line. This is very convenient in the common case,
1018especially when combined with the ability to define command line options in the
1019files that use them. This is called the internal storage model.</p>
1020
1021<p>Sometimes, however, it is nice to separate the command line option processing
1022code from the storage of the value parsed. For example, lets say that we have a
1023'<tt>-debug</tt>' option that we would like to use to enable debug information
1024across the entire body of our program. In this case, the boolean value
1025controlling the debug code should be globally accessable (in a header file, for
1026example) yet the command line option processing code should not be exposed to
1027all of these clients (requiring lots of .cpp files to #include
1028<tt>CommandLine.h</tt>).</p>
1029
1030<p>To do this, set up your .h file with your option, like this for example:</p>
1031
1032<div class="doc_code">
1033<pre>
1034<i>// DebugFlag.h - Get access to the '-debug' command line option
1035//
1036
1037// DebugFlag - This boolean is set to true if the '-debug' command line option
1038// is specified. This should probably not be referenced directly, instead, use
1039// the DEBUG macro below.
1040//</i>
1041extern bool DebugFlag;
1042
1043<i>// DEBUG macro - This macro should be used by code to emit debug information.
1044// In the '-debug' option is specified on the command line, and if this is a
1045// debug build, then the code specified as the option to the macro will be
Chris Lattner00e02f62008-01-09 19:28:50 +00001046// executed. Otherwise it will not be.</i>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +00001047<span class="doc_hilite">#ifdef NDEBUG
1048#define DEBUG(X)
1049#else
1050#define DEBUG(X)</span> do { if (DebugFlag) { X; } } while (0)
1051<span class="doc_hilite">#endif</span>
1052</pre>
1053</div>
1054
1055<p>This allows clients to blissfully use the <tt>DEBUG()</tt> macro, or the
1056<tt>DebugFlag</tt> explicitly if they want to. Now we just need to be able to
1057set the <tt>DebugFlag</tt> boolean when the option is set. To do this, we pass
Chris Lattner00e02f62008-01-09 19:28:50 +00001058an additional argument to our command line argument processor, and we specify
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +00001059where to fill in with the <a href="#cl::location">cl::location</a>
1060attribute:</p>
1061
1062<div class="doc_code">
1063<pre>
1064bool DebugFlag; <i>// the actual value</i>
1065static <a href="#cl::opt">cl::opt</a>&lt;bool, true&gt; <i>// The parser</i>
1066Debug("<i>debug</i>", <a href="#cl::desc">cl::desc</a>("<i>Enable debug output</i>"), <a href="#cl::Hidden">cl::Hidden</a>, <a href="#cl::location">cl::location</a>(DebugFlag));
1067</pre>
1068</div>
1069
1070<p>In the above example, we specify "<tt>true</tt>" as the second argument to
1071the <tt><a href="#cl::opt">cl::opt</a></tt> template, indicating that the
1072template should not maintain a copy of the value itself. In addition to this,
1073we specify the <tt><a href="#cl::location">cl::location</a></tt> attribute, so
1074that <tt>DebugFlag</tt> is automatically set.</p>
1075
1076</div>
1077
1078<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1079<div class="doc_subsection">
1080 <a name="attributes">Option Attributes</a>
1081</div>
1082
1083<div class="doc_text">
1084
1085<p>This section describes the basic attributes that you can specify on
1086options.</p>
1087
1088<ul>
1089
1090<li>The option name attribute (which is required for all options, except <a
1091href="#positional">positional options</a>) specifies what the option name is.
1092This option is specified in simple double quotes:
1093
1094<pre>
1095<a href="#cl::opt">cl::opt</a>&lt;<b>bool</b>&gt; Quiet("<i>quiet</i>");
1096</pre>
1097
1098</li>
1099
1100<li><a name="cl::desc">The <b><tt>cl::desc</tt></b></a> attribute specifies a
1101description for the option to be shown in the <tt>--help</tt> output for the
1102program.</li>
1103
1104<li><a name="cl::value_desc">The <b><tt>cl::value_desc</tt></b></a> attribute
1105specifies a string that can be used to fine tune the <tt>--help</tt> output for
1106a command line option. Look <a href="#value_desc_example">here</a> for an
1107example.</li>
1108
1109<li><a name="cl::init">The <b><tt>cl::init</tt></b></a> attribute specifies an
1110inital value for a <a href="#cl::opt">scalar</a> option. If this attribute is
1111not specified then the command line option value defaults to the value created
1112by the default constructor for the type. <b>Warning</b>: If you specify both
1113<b><tt>cl::init</tt></b> and <b><tt>cl::location</tt></b> for an option,
1114you must specify <b><tt>cl::location</tt></b> first, so that when the
1115command-line parser sees <b><tt>cl::init</tt></b>, it knows where to put the
1116initial value. (You will get an error at runtime if you don't put them in
1117the right order.)</li>
1118
1119<li><a name="cl::location">The <b><tt>cl::location</tt></b></a> attribute where to
1120store the value for a parsed command line option if using external storage. See
1121the section on <a href="#storage">Internal vs External Storage</a> for more
1122information.</li>
1123
1124<li><a name="cl::aliasopt">The <b><tt>cl::aliasopt</tt></b></a> attribute
1125specifies which option a <tt><a href="#cl::alias">cl::alias</a></tt> option is
1126an alias for.</li>
1127
1128<li><a name="cl::values">The <b><tt>cl::values</tt></b></a> attribute specifies
1129the string-to-value mapping to be used by the generic parser. It takes a
Anton Korobeynikov1c1e9002008-02-20 12:38:31 +00001130<b>clEnumValEnd terminated</b> list of (option, value, description) triplets
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +00001131that
1132specify the option name, the value mapped to, and the description shown in the
1133<tt>--help</tt> for the tool. Because the generic parser is used most
1134frequently with enum values, two macros are often useful:
1135
1136<ol>
1137
1138<li><a name="clEnumVal">The <b><tt>clEnumVal</tt></b></a> macro is used as a
1139nice simple way to specify a triplet for an enum. This macro automatically
1140makes the option name be the same as the enum name. The first option to the
1141macro is the enum, the second is the description for the command line
1142option.</li>
1143
1144<li><a name="clEnumValN">The <b><tt>clEnumValN</tt></b></a> macro is used to
1145specify macro options where the option name doesn't equal the enum name. For
1146this macro, the first argument is the enum value, the second is the flag name,
1147and the second is the description.</li>
1148
1149</ol>
1150
1151You will get a compile time error if you try to use cl::values with a parser
1152that does not support it.</li>
1153
1154</ul>
1155
1156</div>
1157
1158<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1159<div class="doc_subsection">
1160 <a name="modifiers">Option Modifiers</a>
1161</div>
1162
1163<div class="doc_text">
1164
1165<p>Option modifiers are the flags and expressions that you pass into the
1166constructors for <tt><a href="#cl::opt">cl::opt</a></tt> and <tt><a
1167href="#cl::list">cl::list</a></tt>. These modifiers give you the ability to
1168tweak how options are parsed and how <tt>--help</tt> output is generated to fit
1169your application well.</p>
1170
1171<p>These options fall into five main catagories:</p>
1172
1173<ol>
1174<li><a href="#hiding">Hiding an option from <tt>--help</tt> output</a></li>
1175<li><a href="#numoccurrences">Controlling the number of occurrences
1176 required and allowed</a></li>
1177<li><a href="#valrequired">Controlling whether or not a value must be
1178 specified</a></li>
1179<li><a href="#formatting">Controlling other formatting options</a></li>
1180<li><a href="#misc">Miscellaneous option modifiers</a></li>
1181</ol>
1182
1183<p>It is not possible to specify two options from the same catagory (you'll get
1184a runtime error) to a single option, except for options in the miscellaneous
1185catagory. The CommandLine library specifies defaults for all of these settings
1186that are the most useful in practice and the most common, which mean that you
1187usually shouldn't have to worry about these.</p>
1188
1189</div>
1190
1191<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
1192<div class="doc_subsubsection">
1193 <a name="hiding">Hiding an option from <tt>--help</tt> output</a>
1194</div>
1195
1196<div class="doc_text">
1197
1198<p>The <tt>cl::NotHidden</tt>, <tt>cl::Hidden</tt>, and
1199<tt>cl::ReallyHidden</tt> modifiers are used to control whether or not an option
1200appears in the <tt>--help</tt> and <tt>--help-hidden</tt> output for the
1201compiled program:</p>
1202
1203<ul>
1204
1205<li><a name="cl::NotHidden">The <b><tt>cl::NotHidden</tt></b></a> modifier
1206(which is the default for <tt><a href="#cl::opt">cl::opt</a></tt> and <tt><a
Chris Lattner00e02f62008-01-09 19:28:50 +00001207href="#cl::list">cl::list</a></tt> options) indicates the option is to appear
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +00001208in both help listings.</li>
1209
1210<li><a name="cl::Hidden">The <b><tt>cl::Hidden</tt></b></a> modifier (which is the
Chris Lattner00e02f62008-01-09 19:28:50 +00001211default for <tt><a href="#cl::alias">cl::alias</a></tt> options) indicates that
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +00001212the option should not appear in the <tt>--help</tt> output, but should appear in
1213the <tt>--help-hidden</tt> output.</li>
1214
Chris Lattner00e02f62008-01-09 19:28:50 +00001215<li><a name="cl::ReallyHidden">The <b><tt>cl::ReallyHidden</tt></b></a> modifier
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +00001216indicates that the option should not appear in any help output.</li>
1217
1218</ul>
1219
1220</div>
1221
1222<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
1223<div class="doc_subsubsection">
1224 <a name="numoccurrences">Controlling the number of occurrences required and
1225 allowed</a>
1226</div>
1227
1228<div class="doc_text">
1229
1230<p>This group of options is used to control how many time an option is allowed
1231(or required) to be specified on the command line of your program. Specifying a
1232value for this setting allows the CommandLine library to do error checking for
1233you.</p>
1234
1235<p>The allowed values for this option group are:</p>
1236
1237<ul>
1238
1239<li><a name="cl::Optional">The <b><tt>cl::Optional</tt></b></a> modifier (which
1240is the default for the <tt><a href="#cl::opt">cl::opt</a></tt> and <tt><a
1241href="#cl::alias">cl::alias</a></tt> classes) indicates that your program will
1242allow either zero or one occurrence of the option to be specified.</li>
1243
1244<li><a name="cl::ZeroOrMore">The <b><tt>cl::ZeroOrMore</tt></b></a> modifier
1245(which is the default for the <tt><a href="#cl::list">cl::list</a></tt> class)
1246indicates that your program will allow the option to be specified zero or more
1247times.</li>
1248
1249<li><a name="cl::Required">The <b><tt>cl::Required</tt></b></a> modifier
1250indicates that the specified option must be specified exactly one time.</li>
1251
1252<li><a name="cl::OneOrMore">The <b><tt>cl::OneOrMore</tt></b></a> modifier
1253indicates that the option must be specified at least one time.</li>
1254
1255<li>The <b><tt>cl::ConsumeAfter</tt></b> modifier is described in the <a
Chris Lattner00e02f62008-01-09 19:28:50 +00001256href="#positional">Positional arguments section</a>.</li>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +00001257
1258</ul>
1259
1260<p>If an option is not specified, then the value of the option is equal to the
1261value specified by the <tt><a href="#cl::init">cl::init</a></tt> attribute. If
1262the <tt><a href="#cl::init">cl::init</a></tt> attribute is not specified, the
1263option value is initialized with the default constructor for the data type.</p>
1264
1265<p>If an option is specified multiple times for an option of the <tt><a
1266href="#cl::opt">cl::opt</a></tt> class, only the last value will be
1267retained.</p>
1268
1269</div>
1270
1271<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
1272<div class="doc_subsubsection">
1273 <a name="valrequired">Controlling whether or not a value must be specified</a>
1274</div>
1275
1276<div class="doc_text">
1277
1278<p>This group of options is used to control whether or not the option allows a
1279value to be present. In the case of the CommandLine library, a value is either
1280specified with an equal sign (e.g. '<tt>-index-depth=17</tt>') or as a trailing
1281string (e.g. '<tt>-o a.out</tt>').</p>
1282
1283<p>The allowed values for this option group are:</p>
1284
1285<ul>
1286
1287<li><a name="cl::ValueOptional">The <b><tt>cl::ValueOptional</tt></b></a> modifier
1288(which is the default for <tt>bool</tt> typed options) specifies that it is
1289acceptable to have a value, or not. A boolean argument can be enabled just by
1290appearing on the command line, or it can have an explicit '<tt>-foo=true</tt>'.
1291If an option is specified with this mode, it is illegal for the value to be
1292provided without the equal sign. Therefore '<tt>-foo true</tt>' is illegal. To
1293get this behavior, you must use the <a
1294href="#cl::ValueRequired">cl::ValueRequired</a> modifier.</li>
1295
1296<li><a name="cl::ValueRequired">The <b><tt>cl::ValueRequired</tt></b></a> modifier
1297(which is the default for all other types except for <a
1298href="#onealternative">unnamed alternatives using the generic parser</a>)
1299specifies that a value must be provided. This mode informs the command line
1300library that if an option is not provides with an equal sign, that the next
1301argument provided must be the value. This allows things like '<tt>-o
1302a.out</tt>' to work.</li>
1303
1304<li><a name="cl::ValueDisallowed">The <b><tt>cl::ValueDisallowed</tt></b></a>
1305modifier (which is the default for <a href="#onealternative">unnamed
1306alternatives using the generic parser</a>) indicates that it is a runtime error
1307for the user to specify a value. This can be provided to disallow users from
1308providing options to boolean options (like '<tt>-foo=true</tt>').</li>
1309
1310</ul>
1311
1312<p>In general, the default values for this option group work just like you would
1313want them to. As mentioned above, you can specify the <a
1314href="#cl::ValueDisallowed">cl::ValueDisallowed</a> modifier to a boolean
1315argument to restrict your command line parser. These options are mostly useful
1316when <a href="#extensionguide">extending the library</a>.</p>
1317
1318</div>
1319
1320<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
1321<div class="doc_subsubsection">
1322 <a name="formatting">Controlling other formatting options</a>
1323</div>
1324
1325<div class="doc_text">
1326
1327<p>The formatting option group is used to specify that the command line option
1328has special abilities and is otherwise different from other command line
Chris Lattner00e02f62008-01-09 19:28:50 +00001329arguments. As usual, you can only specify one of these arguments at most.</p>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +00001330
1331<ul>
1332
1333<li><a name="cl::NormalFormatting">The <b><tt>cl::NormalFormatting</tt></b></a>
1334modifier (which is the default all options) specifies that this option is
1335"normal".</li>
1336
1337<li><a name="cl::Positional">The <b><tt>cl::Positional</tt></b></a> modifier
Chris Lattner00e02f62008-01-09 19:28:50 +00001338specifies that this is a positional argument that does not have a command line
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +00001339option associated with it. See the <a href="#positional">Positional
1340Arguments</a> section for more information.</li>
1341
1342<li>The <b><a href="#cl::ConsumeAfter"><tt>cl::ConsumeAfter</tt></a></b> modifier
1343specifies that this option is used to capture "interpreter style" arguments. See <a href="#cl::ConsumeAfter">this section for more information</a>.</li>
1344
1345<li><a name="cl::Prefix">The <b><tt>cl::Prefix</tt></b></a> modifier specifies
1346that this option prefixes its value. With 'Prefix' options, the equal sign does
1347not separate the value from the option name specified. Instead, the value is
1348everything after the prefix, including any equal sign if present. This is useful
1349for processing odd arguments like <tt>-lmalloc</tt> and <tt>-L/usr/lib</tt> in a
1350linker tool or <tt>-DNAME=value</tt> in a compiler tool. Here, the
1351'<tt>l</tt>', '<tt>D</tt>' and '<tt>L</tt>' options are normal string (or list)
1352options, that have the <b><tt><a href="#cl::Prefix">cl::Prefix</a></tt></b>
1353modifier added to allow the CommandLine library to recognize them. Note that
1354<b><tt><a href="#cl::Prefix">cl::Prefix</a></tt></b> options must not have the
1355<b><tt><a href="#cl::ValueDisallowed">cl::ValueDisallowed</a></tt></b> modifier
1356specified.</li>
1357
1358<li><a name="cl::Grouping">The <b><tt>cl::Grouping</tt></b></a> modifier is used
Chris Lattner00e02f62008-01-09 19:28:50 +00001359to implement Unix-style tools (like <tt>ls</tt>) that have lots of single letter
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +00001360arguments, but only require a single dash. For example, the '<tt>ls -labF</tt>'
1361command actually enables four different options, all of which are single
1362letters. Note that <b><tt><a href="#cl::Grouping">cl::Grouping</a></tt></b>
1363options cannot have values.</li>
1364
1365</ul>
1366
1367<p>The CommandLine library does not restrict how you use the <b><tt><a
1368href="#cl::Prefix">cl::Prefix</a></tt></b> or <b><tt><a
1369href="#cl::Grouping">cl::Grouping</a></tt></b> modifiers, but it is possible to
1370specify ambiguous argument settings. Thus, it is possible to have multiple
1371letter options that are prefix or grouping options, and they will still work as
1372designed.</p>
1373
1374<p>To do this, the CommandLine library uses a greedy algorithm to parse the
1375input option into (potentially multiple) prefix and grouping options. The
1376strategy basically looks like this:</p>
1377
1378<div class="doc_code"><tt>parse(string OrigInput) {</tt>
1379
1380<ol>
1381<li><tt>string input = OrigInput;</tt>
1382<li><tt>if (isOption(input)) return getOption(input).parse();</tt>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>// Normal option</i>
1383<li><tt>while (!isOption(input) &amp;&amp; !input.empty()) input.pop_back();</tt>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>// Remove the last letter</i>
1384<li><tt>if (input.empty()) return error();</tt>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>// No matching option</i>
1385<li><tt>if (getOption(input).isPrefix())<br>
1386&nbsp;&nbsp;return getOption(input).parse(input);</tt>
1387<li><tt>while (!input.empty()) {&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>// Must be grouping options</i><br>
1388&nbsp;&nbsp;getOption(input).parse();<br>
1389&nbsp;&nbsp;OrigInput.erase(OrigInput.begin(), OrigInput.begin()+input.length());<br>
1390&nbsp;&nbsp;input = OrigInput;<br>
1391&nbsp;&nbsp;while (!isOption(input) &amp;&amp; !input.empty()) input.pop_back();<br>
1392}</tt>
1393<li><tt>if (!OrigInput.empty()) error();</tt></li>
1394</ol>
1395
1396<p><tt>}</tt></p>
1397</div>
1398
1399</div>
1400
1401<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
1402<div class="doc_subsubsection">
1403 <a name="misc">Miscellaneous option modifiers</a>
1404</div>
1405
1406<div class="doc_text">
1407
1408<p>The miscellaneous option modifiers are the only flags where you can specify
1409more than one flag from the set: they are not mutually exclusive. These flags
1410specify boolean properties that modify the option.</p>
1411
1412<ul>
1413
1414<li><a name="cl::CommaSeparated">The <b><tt>cl::CommaSeparated</tt></b></a> modifier
1415indicates that any commas specified for an option's value should be used to
1416split the value up into multiple values for the option. For example, these two
1417options are equivalent when <tt>cl::CommaSeparated</tt> is specified:
1418"<tt>-foo=a -foo=b -foo=c</tt>" and "<tt>-foo=a,b,c</tt>". This option only
1419makes sense to be used in a case where the option is allowed to accept one or
1420more values (i.e. it is a <a href="#cl::list">cl::list</a> option).</li>
1421
1422<li><a name="cl::PositionalEatsArgs">The
1423<b><tt>cl::PositionalEatsArgs</tt></b></a> modifier (which only applies to
1424positional arguments, and only makes sense for lists) indicates that positional
1425argument should consume any strings after it (including strings that start with
1426a "-") up until another recognized positional argument. For example, if you
Chris Lattner00e02f62008-01-09 19:28:50 +00001427have two "eating" positional arguments, "<tt>pos1</tt>" and "<tt>pos2</tt>", the
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +00001428string "<tt>-pos1 -foo -bar baz -pos2 -bork</tt>" would cause the "<tt>-foo -bar
1429-baz</tt>" strings to be applied to the "<tt>-pos1</tt>" option and the
1430"<tt>-bork</tt>" string to be applied to the "<tt>-pos2</tt>" option.</li>
1431
Anton Korobeynikov1c1e9002008-02-20 12:38:31 +00001432<li><a name="cl::Sink">The <b><tt>cl::Sink</tt></b></a> modifier is
1433used to handle unknown options. If there is at least one option with
1434<b><tt>cl::Sink</tt></b></a> modifier specified, the parser passes
1435unrecognized option strings to it as values instead of signaling an
1436error. As with <b><tt>cl::CommaSeparated</tt></b></a>, this modifier
1437only makes sense with a <a href="#cl::list">cl::list</a> option.</li>
1438
1439
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +00001440</ul>
1441
Anton Korobeynikov1c1e9002008-02-20 12:38:31 +00001442<p>So far, these are the only three miscellaneous option modifiers.</p>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +00001443
1444</div>
1445
Mikhail Glushenkov7015ef82008-04-28 16:44:25 +00001446<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
1447<div class="doc_subsubsection">
1448 <a name="response">Response files</a>
1449</div>
1450
1451<div class="doc_text">
1452
1453<p>Some systems, such as certain variants of Microsoft Windows and
1454some older Unices have a relatively low limit on command-line
1455length. It is therefore customary to use the so-called 'response
1456files' to circumvent this restriction. These files are mentioned on
1457the command-line (using the "@file") syntax. The program reads these
1458files and inserts the contents into argv, thereby working around the
1459command-line length limits. Response files are enabled by an optional
1460fourth argument to
1461<a href="#cl::ParseEnvironmentOptions"><tt>cl::ParseEnvironmentOptions</tt></a>
1462and
1463<a href="#cl::ParseCommandLineOptions"><tt>cl::ParseCommandLineOptions</tt></a>.
1464</p>
1465
1466</div>
1467
1468
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +00001469<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1470<div class="doc_subsection">
1471 <a name="toplevel">Top-Level Classes and Functions</a>
1472</div>
1473
1474<div class="doc_text">
1475
1476<p>Despite all of the built-in flexibility, the CommandLine option library
1477really only consists of one function (<a
1478href="#cl::ParseCommandLineOptions"><tt>cl::ParseCommandLineOptions</tt></a>)
1479and three main classes: <a href="#cl::opt"><tt>cl::opt</tt></a>, <a
1480href="#cl::list"><tt>cl::list</tt></a>, and <a
1481href="#cl::alias"><tt>cl::alias</tt></a>. This section describes these three
1482classes in detail.</p>
1483
1484</div>
1485
1486<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
1487<div class="doc_subsubsection">
1488 <a name="cl::ParseCommandLineOptions">The <tt>cl::ParseCommandLineOptions</tt>
1489 function</a>
1490</div>
1491
1492<div class="doc_text">
1493
1494<p>The <tt>cl::ParseCommandLineOptions</tt> function is designed to be called
1495directly from <tt>main</tt>, and is used to fill in the values of all of the
1496command line option variables once <tt>argc</tt> and <tt>argv</tt> are
1497available.</p>
1498
1499<p>The <tt>cl::ParseCommandLineOptions</tt> function requires two parameters
1500(<tt>argc</tt> and <tt>argv</tt>), but may also take an optional third parameter
1501which holds <a href="#description">additional extra text</a> to emit when the
Mikhail Glushenkov7015ef82008-04-28 16:44:25 +00001502<tt>--help</tt> option is invoked, and a fourth boolean parameter that enables
1503<a href="#response">response files</a>.</p>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +00001504
1505</div>
1506
1507<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
1508<div class="doc_subsubsection">
1509 <a name="cl::ParseEnvironmentOptions">The <tt>cl::ParseEnvironmentOptions</tt>
1510 function</a>
1511</div>
1512
1513<div class="doc_text">
1514
1515<p>The <tt>cl::ParseEnvironmentOptions</tt> function has mostly the same effects
1516as <a
1517href="#cl::ParseCommandLineOptions"><tt>cl::ParseCommandLineOptions</tt></a>,
1518except that it is designed to take values for options from an environment
1519variable, for those cases in which reading the command line is not convenient or
Chris Lattner00e02f62008-01-09 19:28:50 +00001520desired. It fills in the values of all the command line option variables just
1521like <a
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +00001522href="#cl::ParseCommandLineOptions"><tt>cl::ParseCommandLineOptions</tt></a>
1523does.</p>
1524
Mikhail Glushenkov7015ef82008-04-28 16:44:25 +00001525<p>It takes four parameters: the name of the program (since <tt>argv</tt> may
Chris Lattner00e02f62008-01-09 19:28:50 +00001526not be available, it can't just look in <tt>argv[0]</tt>), the name of the
Mikhail Glushenkov7015ef82008-04-28 16:44:25 +00001527environment variable to examine, the optional
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +00001528<a href="#description">additional extra text</a> to emit when the
Mikhail Glushenkov7015ef82008-04-28 16:44:25 +00001529<tt>--help</tt> option is invoked, and the boolean
1530switch that controls whether <a href="#response">reponse files</a>
1531should be read.</p>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +00001532
1533<p><tt>cl::ParseEnvironmentOptions</tt> will break the environment
1534variable's value up into words and then process them using
1535<a href="#cl::ParseCommandLineOptions"><tt>cl::ParseCommandLineOptions</tt></a>.
1536<b>Note:</b> Currently <tt>cl::ParseEnvironmentOptions</tt> does not support
1537quoting, so an environment variable containing <tt>-option "foo bar"</tt> will
1538be parsed as three words, <tt>-option</tt>, <tt>"foo</tt>, and <tt>bar"</tt>,
1539which is different from what you would get from the shell with the same
1540input.</p>
1541
1542</div>
1543
1544<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
1545<div class="doc_subsubsection">
1546 <a name="cl::SetVersionPrinter">The <tt>cl::SetVersionPrinter</tt>
1547 function</a>
1548</div>
1549
1550<div class="doc_text">
1551
1552<p>The <tt>cl::SetVersionPrinter</tt> function is designed to be called
Chris Lattner00e02f62008-01-09 19:28:50 +00001553directly from <tt>main</tt> and <i>before</i>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +00001554<tt>cl::ParseCommandLineOptions</tt>. Its use is optional. It simply arranges
1555for a function to be called in response to the <tt>--version</tt> option instead
1556of having the <tt>CommandLine</tt> library print out the usual version string
1557for LLVM. This is useful for programs that are not part of LLVM but wish to use
1558the <tt>CommandLine</tt> facilities. Such programs should just define a small
1559function that takes no arguments and returns <tt>void</tt> and that prints out
1560whatever version information is appropriate for the program. Pass the address
1561of that function to <tt>cl::SetVersionPrinter</tt> to arrange for it to be
1562called when the <tt>--version</tt> option is given by the user.</p>
1563
1564</div>
1565<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
1566<div class="doc_subsubsection">
1567 <a name="cl::opt">The <tt>cl::opt</tt> class</a>
1568</div>
1569
1570<div class="doc_text">
1571
1572<p>The <tt>cl::opt</tt> class is the class used to represent scalar command line
1573options, and is the one used most of the time. It is a templated class which
1574can take up to three arguments (all except for the first have default values
1575though):</p>
1576
1577<div class="doc_code"><pre>
1578<b>namespace</b> cl {
1579 <b>template</b> &lt;<b>class</b> DataType, <b>bool</b> ExternalStorage = <b>false</b>,
1580 <b>class</b> ParserClass = parser&lt;DataType&gt; &gt;
1581 <b>class</b> opt;
1582}
1583</pre></div>
1584
1585<p>The first template argument specifies what underlying data type the command
1586line argument is, and is used to select a default parser implementation. The
1587second template argument is used to specify whether the option should contain
1588the storage for the option (the default) or whether external storage should be
1589used to contain the value parsed for the option (see <a href="#storage">Internal
1590vs External Storage</a> for more information).</p>
1591
1592<p>The third template argument specifies which parser to use. The default value
1593selects an instantiation of the <tt>parser</tt> class based on the underlying
1594data type of the option. In general, this default works well for most
1595applications, so this option is only used when using a <a
1596href="#customparser">custom parser</a>.</p>
1597
1598</div>
1599
1600<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
1601<div class="doc_subsubsection">
1602 <a name="cl::list">The <tt>cl::list</tt> class</a>
1603</div>
1604
1605<div class="doc_text">
1606
1607<p>The <tt>cl::list</tt> class is the class used to represent a list of command
1608line options. It too is a templated class which can take up to three
1609arguments:</p>
1610
1611<div class="doc_code"><pre>
1612<b>namespace</b> cl {
1613 <b>template</b> &lt;<b>class</b> DataType, <b>class</b> Storage = <b>bool</b>,
1614 <b>class</b> ParserClass = parser&lt;DataType&gt; &gt;
1615 <b>class</b> list;
1616}
1617</pre></div>
1618
1619<p>This class works the exact same as the <a
1620href="#cl::opt"><tt>cl::opt</tt></a> class, except that the second argument is
1621the <b>type</b> of the external storage, not a boolean value. For this class,
1622the marker type '<tt>bool</tt>' is used to indicate that internal storage should
1623be used.</p>
1624
1625</div>
1626
1627<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
1628<div class="doc_subsubsection">
1629 <a name="cl::bits">The <tt>cl::bits</tt> class</a>
1630</div>
1631
1632<div class="doc_text">
1633
1634<p>The <tt>cl::bits</tt> class is the class used to represent a list of command
1635line options in the form of a bit vector. It is also a templated class which
1636can take up to three arguments:</p>
1637
1638<div class="doc_code"><pre>
1639<b>namespace</b> cl {
1640 <b>template</b> &lt;<b>class</b> DataType, <b>class</b> Storage = <b>bool</b>,
1641 <b>class</b> ParserClass = parser&lt;DataType&gt; &gt;
1642 <b>class</b> bits;
1643}
1644</pre></div>
1645
1646<p>This class works the exact same as the <a
1647href="#cl::opt"><tt>cl::lists</tt></a> class, except that the second argument
1648must be of <b>type</b> <tt>unsigned</tt> if external storage is used.</p>
1649
1650</div>
1651
1652<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
1653<div class="doc_subsubsection">
1654 <a name="cl::alias">The <tt>cl::alias</tt> class</a>
1655</div>
1656
1657<div class="doc_text">
1658
1659<p>The <tt>cl::alias</tt> class is a nontemplated class that is used to form
1660aliases for other arguments.</p>
1661
1662<div class="doc_code"><pre>
1663<b>namespace</b> cl {
1664 <b>class</b> alias;
1665}
1666</pre></div>
1667
1668<p>The <a href="#cl::aliasopt"><tt>cl::aliasopt</tt></a> attribute should be
1669used to specify which option this is an alias for. Alias arguments default to
1670being <a href="#cl::Hidden">Hidden</a>, and use the aliased options parser to do
1671the conversion from string to data.</p>
1672
1673</div>
1674
1675<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
1676<div class="doc_subsubsection">
1677 <a name="cl::extrahelp">The <tt>cl::extrahelp</tt> class</a>
1678</div>
1679
1680<div class="doc_text">
1681
1682<p>The <tt>cl::extrahelp</tt> class is a nontemplated class that allows extra
1683help text to be printed out for the <tt>--help</tt> option.</p>
1684
1685<div class="doc_code"><pre>
1686<b>namespace</b> cl {
1687 <b>struct</b> extrahelp;
1688}
1689</pre></div>
1690
Anton Korobeynikov1c1e9002008-02-20 12:38:31 +00001691<p>To use the extrahelp, simply construct one with a <tt>const char*</tt>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +00001692parameter to the constructor. The text passed to the constructor will be printed
1693at the bottom of the help message, verbatim. Note that multiple
1694<tt>cl::extrahelp</tt> <b>can</b> be used, but this practice is discouraged. If
1695your tool needs to print additional help information, put all that help into a
1696single <tt>cl::extrahelp</tt> instance.</p>
1697<p>For example:</p>
1698<div class="doc_code"><pre>
1699 cl::extrahelp("\nADDITIONAL HELP:\n\n This is the extra help\n");
1700</pre></div>
1701</div>
1702
1703<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1704<div class="doc_subsection">
1705 <a name="builtinparsers">Builtin parsers</a>
1706</div>
1707
1708<div class="doc_text">
1709
1710<p>Parsers control how the string value taken from the command line is
1711translated into a typed value, suitable for use in a C++ program. By default,
1712the CommandLine library uses an instance of <tt>parser&lt;type&gt;</tt> if the
1713command line option specifies that it uses values of type '<tt>type</tt>'.
1714Because of this, custom option processing is specified with specializations of
1715the '<tt>parser</tt>' class.</p>
1716
1717<p>The CommandLine library provides the following builtin parser
1718specializations, which are sufficient for most applications. It can, however,
1719also be extended to work with new data types and new ways of interpreting the
1720same data. See the <a href="#customparser">Writing a Custom Parser</a> for more
1721details on this type of library extension.</p>
1722
1723<ul>
1724
1725<li><a name="genericparser">The <b>generic <tt>parser&lt;t&gt;</tt> parser</b></a>
1726can be used to map strings values to any data type, through the use of the <a
1727href="#cl::values">cl::values</a> property, which specifies the mapping
1728information. The most common use of this parser is for parsing enum values,
1729which allows you to use the CommandLine library for all of the error checking to
1730make sure that only valid enum values are specified (as opposed to accepting
1731arbitrary strings). Despite this, however, the generic parser class can be used
1732for any data type.</li>
1733
1734<li><a name="boolparser">The <b><tt>parser&lt;bool&gt;</tt> specialization</b></a>
1735is used to convert boolean strings to a boolean value. Currently accepted
1736strings are "<tt>true</tt>", "<tt>TRUE</tt>", "<tt>True</tt>", "<tt>1</tt>",
1737"<tt>false</tt>", "<tt>FALSE</tt>", "<tt>False</tt>", and "<tt>0</tt>".</li>
1738
1739<li><a name="boolOrDefaultparser">The <b><tt>parser&lt;boolOrDefault&gt;</tt>
1740 specialization</b></a> is used for cases where the value is boolean,
1741but we also need to know whether the option was specified at all. boolOrDefault
1742is an enum with 3 values, BOU_UNSET, BOU_TRUE and BOU_FALSE. This parser accepts
1743the same strings as <b><tt>parser&lt;bool&gt;</tt></b>.</li>
1744
1745<li><a name="stringparser">The <b><tt>parser&lt;string&gt;</tt>
1746specialization</b></a> simply stores the parsed string into the string value
1747specified. No conversion or modification of the data is performed.</li>
1748
1749<li><a name="intparser">The <b><tt>parser&lt;int&gt;</tt> specialization</b></a>
1750uses the C <tt>strtol</tt> function to parse the string input. As such, it will
1751accept a decimal number (with an optional '+' or '-' prefix) which must start
1752with a non-zero digit. It accepts octal numbers, which are identified with a
1753'<tt>0</tt>' prefix digit, and hexadecimal numbers with a prefix of
1754'<tt>0x</tt>' or '<tt>0X</tt>'.</li>
1755
1756<li><a name="doubleparser">The <b><tt>parser&lt;double&gt;</tt></b></a> and
1757<b><tt>parser&lt;float&gt;</tt> specializations</b> use the standard C
1758<tt>strtod</tt> function to convert floating point strings into floating point
1759values. As such, a broad range of string formats is supported, including
1760exponential notation (ex: <tt>1.7e15</tt>) and properly supports locales.
1761</li>
1762
1763</ul>
1764
1765</div>
1766
1767<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1768<div class="doc_section">
1769 <a name="extensionguide">Extension Guide</a>
1770</div>
1771<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1772
1773<div class="doc_text">
1774
1775<p>Although the CommandLine library has a lot of functionality built into it
1776already (as discussed previously), one of its true strengths lie in its
1777extensibility. This section discusses how the CommandLine library works under
1778the covers and illustrates how to do some simple, common, extensions.</p>
1779
1780</div>
1781
1782<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1783<div class="doc_subsection">
1784 <a name="customparser">Writing a custom parser</a>
1785</div>
1786
1787<div class="doc_text">
1788
1789<p>One of the simplest and most common extensions is the use of a custom parser.
1790As <a href="#builtinparsers">discussed previously</a>, parsers are the portion
1791of the CommandLine library that turns string input from the user into a
1792particular parsed data type, validating the input in the process.</p>
1793
1794<p>There are two ways to use a new parser:</p>
1795
1796<ol>
1797
1798<li>
1799
1800<p>Specialize the <a href="#genericparser"><tt>cl::parser</tt></a> template for
1801your custom data type.<p>
1802
1803<p>This approach has the advantage that users of your custom data type will
1804automatically use your custom parser whenever they define an option with a value
1805type of your data type. The disadvantage of this approach is that it doesn't
1806work if your fundamental data type is something that is already supported.</p>
1807
1808</li>
1809
1810<li>
1811
1812<p>Write an independent class, using it explicitly from options that need
1813it.</p>
1814
1815<p>This approach works well in situations where you would line to parse an
1816option using special syntax for a not-very-special data-type. The drawback of
1817this approach is that users of your parser have to be aware that they are using
Chris Lattner00e02f62008-01-09 19:28:50 +00001818your parser instead of the builtin ones.</p>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +00001819
1820</li>
1821
1822</ol>
1823
1824<p>To guide the discussion, we will discuss a custom parser that accepts file
1825sizes, specified with an optional unit after the numeric size. For example, we
1826would like to parse "102kb", "41M", "1G" into the appropriate integer value. In
1827this case, the underlying data type we want to parse into is
1828'<tt>unsigned</tt>'. We choose approach #2 above because we don't want to make
1829this the default for all <tt>unsigned</tt> options.</p>
1830
1831<p>To start out, we declare our new <tt>FileSizeParser</tt> class:</p>
1832
1833<div class="doc_code"><pre>
1834<b>struct</b> FileSizeParser : <b>public</b> cl::basic_parser&lt;<b>unsigned</b>&gt; {
1835 <i>// parse - Return true on error.</i>
1836 <b>bool</b> parse(cl::Option &amp;O, <b>const char</b> *ArgName, <b>const</b> std::string &amp;ArgValue,
1837 <b>unsigned</b> &amp;Val);
1838};
1839</pre></div>
1840
1841<p>Our new class inherits from the <tt>cl::basic_parser</tt> template class to
Chris Lattner00e02f62008-01-09 19:28:50 +00001842fill in the default, boiler plate code for us. We give it the data type that
1843we parse into, the last argument to the <tt>parse</tt> method, so that clients of
1844our custom parser know what object type to pass in to the parse method. (Here we
1845declare that we parse into '<tt>unsigned</tt>' variables.)</p>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +00001846
1847<p>For most purposes, the only method that must be implemented in a custom
1848parser is the <tt>parse</tt> method. The <tt>parse</tt> method is called
1849whenever the option is invoked, passing in the option itself, the option name,
1850the string to parse, and a reference to a return value. If the string to parse
Chris Lattner00e02f62008-01-09 19:28:50 +00001851is not well-formed, the parser should output an error message and return true.
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +00001852Otherwise it should return false and set '<tt>Val</tt>' to the parsed value. In
1853our example, we implement <tt>parse</tt> as:</p>
1854
1855<div class="doc_code"><pre>
1856<b>bool</b> FileSizeParser::parse(cl::Option &amp;O, <b>const char</b> *ArgName,
1857 <b>const</b> std::string &amp;Arg, <b>unsigned</b> &amp;Val) {
1858 <b>const char</b> *ArgStart = Arg.c_str();
1859 <b>char</b> *End;
Anton Korobeynikov1c1e9002008-02-20 12:38:31 +00001860
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +00001861 <i>// Parse integer part, leaving 'End' pointing to the first non-integer char</i>
1862 Val = (unsigned)strtol(ArgStart, &amp;End, 0);
1863
1864 <b>while</b> (1) {
1865 <b>switch</b> (*End++) {
1866 <b>case</b> 0: <b>return</b> false; <i>// No error</i>
1867 <b>case</b> 'i': <i>// Ignore the 'i' in KiB if people use that</i>
1868 <b>case</b> 'b': <b>case</b> 'B': <i>// Ignore B suffix</i>
1869 <b>break</b>;
1870
1871 <b>case</b> 'g': <b>case</b> 'G': Val *= 1024*1024*1024; <b>break</b>;
1872 <b>case</b> 'm': <b>case</b> 'M': Val *= 1024*1024; <b>break</b>;
1873 <b>case</b> 'k': <b>case</b> 'K': Val *= 1024; <b>break</b>;
1874
1875 default:
1876 <i>// Print an error message if unrecognized character!</i>
1877 <b>return</b> O.error(": '" + Arg + "' value invalid for file size argument!");
1878 }
1879 }
1880}
1881</pre></div>
1882
1883<p>This function implements a very simple parser for the kinds of strings we are
1884interested in. Although it has some holes (it allows "<tt>123KKK</tt>" for
1885example), it is good enough for this example. Note that we use the option
1886itself to print out the error message (the <tt>error</tt> method always returns
1887true) in order to get a nice error message (shown below). Now that we have our
1888parser class, we can use it like this:</p>
1889
1890<div class="doc_code"><pre>
1891<b>static</b> <a href="#cl::opt">cl::opt</a>&lt;<b>unsigned</b>, <b>false</b>, FileSizeParser&gt;
1892MFS(<i>"max-file-size"</i>, <a href="#cl::desc">cl::desc</a>(<i>"Maximum file size to accept"</i>),
1893 <a href="#cl::value_desc">cl::value_desc</a>("<i>size</i>"));
1894</pre></div>
1895
1896<p>Which adds this to the output of our program:</p>
1897
1898<div class="doc_code"><pre>
1899OPTIONS:
1900 -help - display available options (--help-hidden for more)
1901 ...
1902 <b>-max-file-size=&lt;size&gt; - Maximum file size to accept</b>
1903</pre></div>
1904
1905<p>And we can test that our parse works correctly now (the test program just
1906prints out the max-file-size argument value):</p>
1907
1908<div class="doc_code"><pre>
1909$ ./test
1910MFS: 0
1911$ ./test -max-file-size=123MB
1912MFS: 128974848
1913$ ./test -max-file-size=3G
1914MFS: 3221225472
1915$ ./test -max-file-size=dog
1916-max-file-size option: 'dog' value invalid for file size argument!
1917</pre></div>
1918
1919<p>It looks like it works. The error message that we get is nice and helpful,
1920and we seem to accept reasonable file sizes. This wraps up the "custom parser"
1921tutorial.</p>
1922
1923</div>
1924
1925<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1926<div class="doc_subsection">
1927 <a name="explotingexternal">Exploiting external storage</a>
1928</div>
1929
1930<div class="doc_text">
1931 <p>Several of the LLVM libraries define static <tt>cl::opt</tt> instances that
1932 will automatically be included in any program that links with that library.
1933 This is a feature. However, sometimes it is necessary to know the value of the
1934 command line option outside of the library. In these cases the library does or
1935 should provide an external storage location that is accessible to users of the
1936 library. Examples of this include the <tt>llvm::DebugFlag</tt> exported by the
1937 <tt>lib/Support/Debug.cpp</tt> file and the <tt>llvm::TimePassesIsEnabled</tt>
1938 flag exported by the <tt>lib/VMCore/Pass.cpp</tt> file.</p>
1939
1940<p>TODO: complete this section</p>
1941
1942</div>
1943
1944<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1945<div class="doc_subsection">
1946 <a name="dynamicopts">Dynamically adding command line options</a>
1947</div>
1948
1949<div class="doc_text">
1950
1951<p>TODO: fill in this section</p>
1952
1953</div>
1954
1955<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1956
1957<hr>
1958<address>
1959 <a href="http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/check/referer"><img
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Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +00001963
1964 <a href="mailto:sabre@nondot.org">Chris Lattner</a><br>
1965 <a href="http://llvm.org">LLVM Compiler Infrastructure</a><br>
1966 Last modified: $Date$
1967</address>
1968
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