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Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00006 <title>CommandLine 2.0 Library Manual</title>
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Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +000010
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +000011<h1>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +000012 CommandLine 2.0 Library Manual
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +000013</h1>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +000014
15<ol>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +000016 <li><a href="#introduction">Introduction</a></li>
17
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +000018 <li><a href="#quickstart">Quick Start Guide</a>
19 <ol>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +000020 <li><a href="#bool">Boolean Arguments</a></li>
21 <li><a href="#alias">Argument Aliases</a></li>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +000022 <li><a href="#onealternative">Selecting an alternative from a
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +000023 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>
Jim Laskey1d8f6262005-08-25 22:52:43 +000026 <li><a href="#bits">Collecting options as a set of flags</a></li>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +000027 <li><a href="#description">Adding freeform text to help output</a></li>
28 </ol></li>
29
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +000030 <li><a href="#referenceguide">Reference Guide</a>
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +000031 <ol>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +000032 <li><a href="#positional">Positional Arguments</a>
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +000033 <ul>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +000034 <li><a href="#--">Specifying positional options with hyphens</a></li>
Reid Spencer2c8ab582004-08-13 20:19:14 +000035 <li><a href="#getPosition">Determining absolute position with
36 getPosition</a></li>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +000037 <li><a href="#cl::ConsumeAfter">The <tt>cl::ConsumeAfter</tt>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +000038 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
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +000045 <li><a href="#modifiers">Option Modifiers</a>
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +000046 <ul>
Duncan Sands7e7ae5a2010-02-18 14:08:13 +000047 <li><a href="#hiding">Hiding an option from <tt>-help</tt>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +000048 output</a></li>
49 <li><a href="#numoccurrences">Controlling the number of occurrences
50 required and allowed</a></li>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +000051 <li><a href="#valrequired">Controlling whether or not a value must be
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +000052 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 Glushenkovbeb4d822008-04-28 16:44:25 +000055 <li><a href="#response">Response files</a></li>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +000056 </ul></li>
57
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +000058 <li><a href="#toplevel">Top-Level Classes and Functions</a>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +000059 <ul>
Anton Korobeynikov45982a52008-02-20 12:38:31 +000060 <li><a href="#cl::ParseCommandLineOptions">The
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +000061 <tt>cl::ParseCommandLineOptions</tt> function</a></li>
Anton Korobeynikov45982a52008-02-20 12:38:31 +000062 <li><a href="#cl::ParseEnvironmentOptions">The
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +000063 <tt>cl::ParseEnvironmentOptions</tt> function</a></li>
Chris Lattnerf021f8a2007-12-19 19:48:49 +000064 <li><a href="#cl::SetVersionPrinter">The <tt>cl::SetVersionPrinter</tt>
Reid Spencer2403b852006-06-05 17:30:16 +000065 function</a></li>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +000066 <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>
Jim Laskey1d8f6262005-08-25 22:52:43 +000068 <li><a href="#cl::bits">The <tt>cl::bits</tt> class</a></li>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +000069 <li><a href="#cl::alias">The <tt>cl::alias</tt> class</a></li>
Reid Spencer9bbba0912004-11-16 06:11:52 +000070 <li><a href="#cl::extrahelp">The <tt>cl::extrahelp</tt> class</a></li>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +000071 </ul></li>
72
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +000073 <li><a href="#builtinparsers">Builtin parsers</a>
74 <ul>
75 <li><a href="#genericparser">The Generic <tt>parser&lt;t&gt;</tt>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +000076 parser</a></li>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +000077 <li><a href="#boolparser">The <tt>parser&lt;bool&gt;</tt>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +000078 specialization</a></li>
Dale Johannesen0f2c8fc2007-05-22 18:32:34 +000079 <li><a href="#boolOrDefaultparser">The <tt>parser&lt;boolOrDefault&gt;</tt>
80 specialization</a></li>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +000081 <li><a href="#stringparser">The <tt>parser&lt;string&gt;</tt>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +000082 specialization</a></li>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +000083 <li><a href="#intparser">The <tt>parser&lt;int&gt;</tt>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +000084 specialization</a></li>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +000085 <li><a href="#doubleparser">The <tt>parser&lt;double&gt;</tt> and
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +000086 <tt>parser&lt;float&gt;</tt> specializations</a></li>
87 </ul></li>
88 </ol></li>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +000089 <li><a href="#extensionguide">Extension Guide</a>
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +000090 <ol>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +000091 <li><a href="#customparser">Writing a custom parser</a></li>
92 <li><a href="#explotingexternal">Exploiting external storage</a></li>
Anton Korobeynikov45982a52008-02-20 12:38:31 +000093 <li><a href="#dynamicopts">Dynamically adding command line
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +000094 options</a></li>
95 </ol></li>
96</ol>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +000097
Chris Lattner7911ce22004-05-23 21:07:27 +000098<div class="doc_author">
99 <p>Written by <a href="mailto:sabre@nondot.org">Chris Lattner</a></p>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000100</div>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000101
102<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +0000103<h2>
Misha Brukman8becd712003-11-07 19:42:44 +0000104 <a name="introduction">Introduction</a>
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +0000105</h2>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000106<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
107
NAKAMURA Takumif5af6ad2011-04-23 00:30:22 +0000108<div>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000109
110<p>This document describes the CommandLine argument processing library. It will
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000111show 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
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000115changed</a>).</p>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000116
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000117<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>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000121
122<ol>
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000123<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
Chris Lattneredf351f2003-06-21 21:45:56 +0000126argument values are captured transparently into user defined global variables,
127which can be accessed like any other variable (and with the same
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000128performance).</li>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000129
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000130<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
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000133error prone constructs, it also leads to dramatically cleaner source code.</li>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000134
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000135<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
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000137parser. This means that you don't have to write <b>any</b> boilerplate
138code.</li>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000139
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000140<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 Lattner8b44b902008-01-09 19:28:50 +0000142because the application doesn't have to keep a list of arguments to pass to
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000143the parser. This also makes supporting <a href="#dynamicopts">dynamically
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000144loaded options</a> trivial.</li>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000145
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +0000146<li>Cleaner: CommandLine supports enum and other types directly, meaning that
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000147there 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
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000149assigned a value that is not valid for your enum type.</li>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000150
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000151<li>Powerful: The CommandLine library supports many different types of
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000152arguments, 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
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000156arguments</a>. This is possible because CommandLine is...</li>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000157
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000158<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
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000160you declare it. <a href="#customparser">Custom parsers</a> are no problem.</li>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000161
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000162<li>Labor Saving: The CommandLine library cuts down on the amount of grunt work
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000163that you, the user, have to do. For example, it automatically provides a
Duncan Sands7e7ae5a2010-02-18 14:08:13 +0000164<tt>-help</tt> option that shows the available command line options for your
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000165tool. Additionally, it does most of the basic correctness checking for
166you.</li>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000167
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
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000174href="#cl::ConsumeAfter">interpreter style options</a>.</li>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000175
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000176</ol>
177
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000178<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>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000183
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000184</div>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000185
186<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +0000187<h2>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000188 <a name="quickstart">Quick Start Guide</a>
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +0000189</h2>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000190<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
191
NAKAMURA Takumif5af6ad2011-04-23 00:30:22 +0000192<div>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000193
194<p>This section of the manual runs through a simple CommandLine'ification of a
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000195basic 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
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000197can do.</p>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000198
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000199<p>To start out, you need to include the CommandLine header file into your
200program:</p>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000201
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000202<div class="doc_code"><pre>
Andrew Lenharth94f3d1a2005-11-14 19:32:05 +0000203 #include "llvm/Support/CommandLine.h"
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000204</pre></div>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000205
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000206<p>Additionally, you need to add this as the first line of your main
207program:</p>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000208
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000209<div class="doc_code"><pre>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000210int main(int argc, char **argv) {
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +0000211 <a href="#cl::ParseCommandLineOptions">cl::ParseCommandLineOptions</a>(argc, argv);
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000212 ...
213}
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000214</pre></div>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000215
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000216<p>... which actually parses the arguments and fills in the variable
217declarations.</p>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000218
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000219<p>Now that you are ready to support command line arguments, we need to tell the
Chris Lattner8b44b902008-01-09 19:28:50 +0000220system which ones we want, and what type of arguments they are. The CommandLine
Chris Lattneredf351f2003-06-21 21:45:56 +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 Lattner8b44b902008-01-09 19:28:50 +0000225we would like to support the Unix-standard '<tt>-o &lt;filename&gt;</tt>' option
Chris Lattneredf351f2003-06-21 21:45:56 +0000226to specify where to put the output. With the CommandLine library, this is
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000227represented like this:</p>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000228
Misha Brukmanc53aefb2004-05-12 18:42:35 +0000229<a name="value_desc_example"></a>
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000230<div class="doc_code"><pre>
Misha Brukmanc53aefb2004-05-12 18:42:35 +0000231<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>"));
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000232</pre></div>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000233
NAKAMURA Takumidd499c32011-04-11 03:27:31 +0000234<p>This declares a global variable &quot;<tt>OutputFilename</tt>&quot; that is used to
235capture the result of the &quot;<tt>o</tt>&quot; argument (first parameter). We specify
236that this is a simple scalar option by using the &quot;<tt><a
237href="#cl::opt">cl::opt</a></tt>&quot; template (as opposed to the <a
238href="#list">&quot;<tt>cl::list</tt> template</a>), and tell the CommandLine library
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000239that the data type that we are parsing is a string.</p>
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000240
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000241<p>The second and third parameters (which are optional) are used to specify what
Duncan Sands7e7ae5a2010-02-18 14:08:13 +0000242to output for the "<tt>-help</tt>" option. In this case, we get a line that
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000243looks like this:</p>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000244
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000245<div class="doc_code"><pre>
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000246USAGE: compiler [options]
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000247
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000248OPTIONS:
Duncan Sands7e7ae5a2010-02-18 14:08:13 +0000249 -help - display available options (-help-hidden for more)
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +0000250 <b>-o &lt;filename&gt; - Specify output filename</b>
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000251</pre></div>
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000252
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000253<p>Because we specified that the command line option should parse using the
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000254<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
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000256example:</p>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000257
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000258<div class="doc_code"><pre>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000259 ...
Chris Lattner74ba1712008-03-30 16:59:21 +0000260 std::ofstream Output(OutputFilename.c_str());
261 if (Output.good()) ...
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000262 ...
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000263</pre></div>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000264
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000265<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
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000268with helper functions like <a href="#cl::desc"><tt>cl::desc(...)</tt></a>, so
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +0000269there are no positional dependencies to remember. The available options are
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000270discussed in detail in the <a href="#referenceguide">Reference Guide</a>.</p>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000271
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000272<p>Continuing the example, we would like to have our compiler take an input
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000273filename 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
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000275style 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
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000278in option form. We use this feature like this:</p>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000279
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000280<div class="doc_code"><pre>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000281<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>"));
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000282</pre></div>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000283
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000284<p>This declaration indicates that the first positional argument should be
285treated as the input filename. Here we use the <tt><a
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000286href="#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).
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000290Command line options default to being optional, so if we would like to require
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000291that 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
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000293<tt><a href="#cl::init">cl::init</a></tt> modifier, like this:</p>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000294
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000295<div class="doc_code"><pre>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000296<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>);
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000297</pre></div>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000298
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000299<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>
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000301
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000302<div class="doc_code"><pre>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000303<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>"));
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000304</pre></div>
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000305
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000306<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
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000308specified, 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
Duncan Sands7e7ae5a2010-02-18 14:08:13 +0000311adding one of the declarations above, the <tt>-help</tt> option synopsis is now
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000312extended to:</p>
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000313
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000314<div class="doc_code"><pre>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +0000315USAGE: compiler [options] <b>&lt;input file&gt;</b>
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000316
317OPTIONS:
Duncan Sands7e7ae5a2010-02-18 14:08:13 +0000318 -help - display available options (-help-hidden for more)
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000319 -o &lt;filename&gt; - Specify output filename
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000320</pre></div>
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000321
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000322<p>... indicating that an input filename is expected.</p>
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000323
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000324<!-- ======================================================================= -->
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +0000325<h3>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000326 <a name="bool">Boolean Arguments</a>
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +0000327</h3>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000328
NAKAMURA Takumif5af6ad2011-04-23 00:30:22 +0000329<div>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000330
331<p>In addition to input and output filenames, we would like the compiler example
Dan Gohman0cabaa52009-08-25 15:54:01 +0000332to support three boolean flags: "<tt>-f</tt>" to force writing binary output to
333a terminal, "<tt>--quiet</tt>" to enable quiet mode, and "<tt>-q</tt>" for
334backwards compatibility with some of our users. We can support these by
335declaring options of boolean type like this:</p>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000336
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000337<div class="doc_code"><pre>
Dan Gohman0cabaa52009-08-25 15:54:01 +0000338<a href="#cl::opt">cl::opt</a>&lt;bool&gt; Force ("<i>f</i>", <a href="#cl::desc">cl::desc</a>("<i>Enable binary output on terminals</i>"));
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000339<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>"));
340<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>);
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000341</pre></div>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000342
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000343<p>This does what you would expect: it declares three boolean variables
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000344("<tt>Force</tt>", "<tt>Quiet</tt>", and "<tt>Quiet2</tt>") to recognize these
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000345options. Note that the "<tt>-q</tt>" option is specified with the "<a
346href="#cl::Hidden"><tt>cl::Hidden</tt></a>" flag. This modifier prevents it
Duncan Sands7e7ae5a2010-02-18 14:08:13 +0000347from being shown by the standard "<tt>-help</tt>" output (note that it is still
348shown in the "<tt>-help-hidden</tt>" output).</p>
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000349
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000350<p>The CommandLine library uses a <a href="#builtinparsers">different parser</a>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +0000351for different data types. For example, in the string case, the argument passed
352to the option is copied literally into the content of the string variable... we
353obviously cannot do that in the boolean case, however, so we must use a smarter
354parser. In the case of the boolean parser, it allows no options (in which case
355it assigns the value of true to the variable), or it allows the values
356"<tt>true</tt>" or "<tt>false</tt>" to be specified, allowing any of the
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000357following inputs:</p>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000358
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000359<div class="doc_code"><pre>
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000360 compiler -f # No value, 'Force' == true
361 compiler -f=true # Value specified, 'Force' == true
362 compiler -f=TRUE # Value specified, 'Force' == true
363 compiler -f=FALSE # Value specified, 'Force' == false
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000364</pre></div>
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000365
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000366<p>... you get the idea. The <a href="#boolparser">bool parser</a> just turns
367the string values into boolean values, and rejects things like '<tt>compiler
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +0000368-f=foo</tt>'. Similarly, the <a href="#doubleparser">float</a>, <a
369href="#doubleparser">double</a>, and <a href="#intparser">int</a> parsers work
370like you would expect, using the '<tt>strtol</tt>' and '<tt>strtod</tt>' C
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000371library calls to parse the string value into the specified data type.</p>
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000372
Duncan Sands7e7ae5a2010-02-18 14:08:13 +0000373<p>With the declarations above, "<tt>compiler -help</tt>" emits this:</p>
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000374
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000375<div class="doc_code"><pre>
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000376USAGE: compiler [options] &lt;input file&gt;
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000377
378OPTIONS:
Dan Gohman0cabaa52009-08-25 15:54:01 +0000379 <b>-f - Enable binary output on terminals</b>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000380 -o - Override output filename
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +0000381 <b>-quiet - Don't print informational messages</b>
Duncan Sands7e7ae5a2010-02-18 14:08:13 +0000382 -help - display available options (-help-hidden for more)
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000383</pre></div>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000384
Duncan Sands7e7ae5a2010-02-18 14:08:13 +0000385<p>and "<tt>compiler -help-hidden</tt>" prints this:</p>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000386
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000387<div class="doc_code"><pre>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +0000388USAGE: compiler [options] &lt;input file&gt;
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000389
390OPTIONS:
Dan Gohman0cabaa52009-08-25 15:54:01 +0000391 -f - Enable binary output on terminals
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000392 -o - Override output filename
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +0000393 <b>-q - Don't print informational messages</b>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000394 -quiet - Don't print informational messages
Duncan Sands7e7ae5a2010-02-18 14:08:13 +0000395 -help - display available options (-help-hidden for more)
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000396</pre></div>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000397
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000398<p>This brief example has shown you how to use the '<tt><a
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000399href="#cl::opt">cl::opt</a></tt>' class to parse simple scalar command line
400arguments. In addition to simple scalar arguments, the CommandLine library also
401provides primitives to support CommandLine option <a href="#alias">aliases</a>,
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000402and <a href="#list">lists</a> of options.</p>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000403
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000404</div>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000405
406<!-- ======================================================================= -->
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +0000407<h3>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000408 <a name="alias">Argument Aliases</a>
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +0000409</h3>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000410
NAKAMURA Takumif5af6ad2011-04-23 00:30:22 +0000411<div>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000412
413<p>So far, the example works well, except for the fact that we need to check the
414quiet condition like this now:</p>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000415
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000416<div class="doc_code"><pre>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000417...
418 if (!Quiet &amp;&amp; !Quiet2) printInformationalMessage(...);
419...
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000420</pre></div>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000421
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000422<p>... which is a real pain! Instead of defining two values for the same
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000423condition, we can use the "<tt><a href="#cl::alias">cl::alias</a></tt>" class to make the "<tt>-q</tt>"
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000424option an <b>alias</b> for the "<tt>-quiet</tt>" option, instead of providing
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000425a value itself:</p>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000426
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000427<div class="doc_code"><pre>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000428<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>"));
429<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>"));
430<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));
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000431</pre></div>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000432
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000433<p>The third line (which is the only one we modified from above) defines a
Chris Lattner8b44b902008-01-09 19:28:50 +0000434"<tt>-q</tt>" alias that updates the "<tt>Quiet</tt>" variable (as specified by
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000435the <tt><a href="#cl::aliasopt">cl::aliasopt</a></tt> modifier) whenever it is
436specified. Because aliases do not hold state, the only thing the program has to
437query is the <tt>Quiet</tt> variable now. Another nice feature of aliases is
438that they automatically hide themselves from the <tt>-help</tt> output
Duncan Sands7e7ae5a2010-02-18 14:08:13 +0000439(although, again, they are still visible in the <tt>-help-hidden
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000440output</tt>).</p>
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000441
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000442<p>Now the application code can simply use:</p>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000443
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000444<div class="doc_code"><pre>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000445...
446 if (!Quiet) printInformationalMessage(...);
447...
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000448</pre></div>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000449
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000450<p>... which is much nicer! The "<tt><a href="#cl::alias">cl::alias</a></tt>"
451can be used to specify an alternative name for any variable type, and has many
452uses.</p>
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000453
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000454</div>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000455
456<!-- ======================================================================= -->
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +0000457<h3>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000458 <a name="onealternative">Selecting an alternative from a set of
459 possibilities</a>
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +0000460</h3>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000461
NAKAMURA Takumif5af6ad2011-04-23 00:30:22 +0000462<div>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000463
Chris Lattner8b44b902008-01-09 19:28:50 +0000464<p>So far we have seen how the CommandLine library handles builtin types like
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000465<tt>std::string</tt>, <tt>bool</tt> and <tt>int</tt>, but how does it handle
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000466things it doesn't know about, like enums or '<tt>int*</tt>'s?</p>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000467
Chris Lattner8b44b902008-01-09 19:28:50 +0000468<p>The answer is that it uses a table-driven generic parser (unless you specify
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000469your own parser, as described in the <a href="#extensionguide">Extension
Reid Spencerd8473372004-08-10 16:38:18 +0000470Guide</a>). This parser maps literal strings to whatever type is required, and
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000471requires you to tell it what this mapping should be.</p>
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000472
Chris Lattner8b44b902008-01-09 19:28:50 +0000473<p>Let's say that we would like to add four optimization levels to our
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000474optimizer, using the standard flags "<tt>-g</tt>", "<tt>-O0</tt>",
475"<tt>-O1</tt>", and "<tt>-O2</tt>". We could easily implement this with boolean
476options like above, but there are several problems with this strategy:</p>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000477
478<ol>
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000479<li>A user could specify more than one of the options at a time, for example,
Chris Lattner8b44b902008-01-09 19:28:50 +0000480"<tt>compiler -O3 -O2</tt>". The CommandLine library would not be able to
481catch this erroneous input for us.</li>
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000482
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000483<li>We would have to test 4 different variables to see which ones are set.</li>
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000484
485<li>This doesn't map to the numeric levels that we want... so we cannot easily
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000486see if some level &gt;= "<tt>-O1</tt>" is enabled.</li>
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000487
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000488</ol>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000489
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000490<p>To cope with these problems, we can use an enum value, and have the
491CommandLine library fill it in with the appropriate level directly, which is
492used like this:</p>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000493
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000494<div class="doc_code"><pre>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000495enum OptLevel {
496 g, O1, O2, O3
497};
498
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000499<a href="#cl::opt">cl::opt</a>&lt;OptLevel&gt; OptimizationLevel(<a href="#cl::desc">cl::desc</a>("<i>Choose optimization level:</i>"),
500 <a href="#cl::values">cl::values</a>(
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000501 clEnumVal(g , "<i>No optimizations, enable debugging</i>"),
502 clEnumVal(O1, "<i>Enable trivial optimizations</i>"),
503 clEnumVal(O2, "<i>Enable default optimizations</i>"),
504 clEnumVal(O3, "<i>Enable expensive optimizations</i>"),
Chris Lattnerb406ead2004-07-16 00:10:54 +0000505 clEnumValEnd));
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000506
507...
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000508 if (OptimizationLevel &gt;= O2) doPartialRedundancyElimination(...);
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000509...
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000510</pre></div>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000511
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000512<p>This declaration defines a variable "<tt>OptimizationLevel</tt>" of the
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000513"<tt>OptLevel</tt>" enum type. This variable can be assigned any of the values
514that are listed in the declaration (Note that the declaration list must be
Anton Korobeynikov45982a52008-02-20 12:38:31 +0000515terminated with the "<tt>clEnumValEnd</tt>" argument!). The CommandLine
Chris Lattnerb406ead2004-07-16 00:10:54 +0000516library enforces
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000517that the user can only specify one of the options, and it ensure that only valid
518enum values can be specified. The "<tt>clEnumVal</tt>" macros ensure that the
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000519command line arguments matched the enum values. With this option added, our
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000520help output now is:</p>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000521
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000522<div class="doc_code"><pre>
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000523USAGE: compiler [options] &lt;input file&gt;
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000524
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000525OPTIONS:
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +0000526 <b>Choose optimization level:
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000527 -g - No optimizations, enable debugging
528 -O1 - Enable trivial optimizations
529 -O2 - Enable default optimizations
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +0000530 -O3 - Enable expensive optimizations</b>
Dan Gohman0cabaa52009-08-25 15:54:01 +0000531 -f - Enable binary output on terminals
Duncan Sands7e7ae5a2010-02-18 14:08:13 +0000532 -help - display available options (-help-hidden for more)
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000533 -o &lt;filename&gt; - Specify output filename
534 -quiet - Don't print informational messages
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000535</pre></div>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000536
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000537<p>In this case, it is sort of awkward that flag names correspond directly to
538enum names, because we probably don't want a enum definition named "<tt>g</tt>"
539in our program. Because of this, we can alternatively write this example like
540this:</p>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000541
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000542<div class="doc_code"><pre>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000543enum OptLevel {
544 Debug, O1, O2, O3
545};
546
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000547<a href="#cl::opt">cl::opt</a>&lt;OptLevel&gt; OptimizationLevel(<a href="#cl::desc">cl::desc</a>("<i>Choose optimization level:</i>"),
548 <a href="#cl::values">cl::values</a>(
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000549 clEnumValN(Debug, "g", "<i>No optimizations, enable debugging</i>"),
550 clEnumVal(O1 , "<i>Enable trivial optimizations</i>"),
551 clEnumVal(O2 , "<i>Enable default optimizations</i>"),
552 clEnumVal(O3 , "<i>Enable expensive optimizations</i>"),
Chris Lattnerb406ead2004-07-16 00:10:54 +0000553 clEnumValEnd));
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000554
555...
556 if (OptimizationLevel == Debug) outputDebugInfo(...);
557...
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000558</pre></div>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000559
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000560<p>By using the "<tt>clEnumValN</tt>" macro instead of "<tt>clEnumVal</tt>", we
561can directly specify the name that the flag should get. In general a direct
562mapping is nice, but sometimes you can't or don't want to preserve the mapping,
563which is when you would use it.</p>
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000564
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000565</div>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000566
567<!-- ======================================================================= -->
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +0000568<h3>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000569 <a name="namedalternatives">Named Alternatives</a>
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +0000570</h3>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000571
NAKAMURA Takumif5af6ad2011-04-23 00:30:22 +0000572<div>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000573
574<p>Another useful argument form is a named alternative style. We shall use this
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000575style in our compiler to specify different debug levels that can be used.
576Instead of each debug level being its own switch, we want to support the
577following options, of which only one can be specified at a time:
578"<tt>--debug-level=none</tt>", "<tt>--debug-level=quick</tt>",
579"<tt>--debug-level=detailed</tt>". To do this, we use the exact same format as
580our optimization level flags, but we also specify an option name. For this
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000581case, the code looks like this:</p>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000582
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000583<div class="doc_code"><pre>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000584enum DebugLev {
585 nodebuginfo, quick, detailed
586};
587
588// Enable Debug Options to be specified on the command line
Chris Lattnerdc844fa2003-06-03 04:40:06 +0000589<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>"),
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000590 <a href="#cl::values">cl::values</a>(
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000591 clEnumValN(nodebuginfo, "none", "<i>disable debug information</i>"),
592 clEnumVal(quick, "<i>enable quick debug information</i>"),
593 clEnumVal(detailed, "<i>enable detailed debug information</i>"),
Chris Lattnerb406ead2004-07-16 00:10:54 +0000594 clEnumValEnd));
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000595</pre></div>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000596
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000597<p>This definition defines an enumerated command line variable of type "<tt>enum
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000598DebugLev</tt>", which works exactly the same way as before. The difference here
599is just the interface exposed to the user of your program and the help output by
Duncan Sands7e7ae5a2010-02-18 14:08:13 +0000600the "<tt>-help</tt>" option:</p>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000601
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000602<div class="doc_code"><pre>
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000603USAGE: compiler [options] &lt;input file&gt;
604
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000605OPTIONS:
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000606 Choose optimization level:
607 -g - No optimizations, enable debugging
608 -O1 - Enable trivial optimizations
609 -O2 - Enable default optimizations
610 -O3 - Enable expensive optimizations
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +0000611 <b>-debug_level - Set the debugging level:
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000612 =none - disable debug information
613 =quick - enable quick debug information
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +0000614 =detailed - enable detailed debug information</b>
Dan Gohman0cabaa52009-08-25 15:54:01 +0000615 -f - Enable binary output on terminals
Duncan Sands7e7ae5a2010-02-18 14:08:13 +0000616 -help - display available options (-help-hidden for more)
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000617 -o &lt;filename&gt; - Specify output filename
618 -quiet - Don't print informational messages
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000619</pre></div>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000620
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000621<p>Again, the only structural difference between the debug level declaration and
John Criswellc24d4822004-11-21 14:34:34 +0000622the optimization level declaration is that the debug level declaration includes
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000623an option name (<tt>"debug_level"</tt>), which automatically changes how the
624library processes the argument. The CommandLine library supports both forms so
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000625that you can choose the form most appropriate for your application.</p>
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000626
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000627</div>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000628
629<!-- ======================================================================= -->
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +0000630<h3>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000631 <a name="list">Parsing a list of options</a>
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +0000632</h3>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000633
NAKAMURA Takumif5af6ad2011-04-23 00:30:22 +0000634<div>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000635
Chris Lattner8b44b902008-01-09 19:28:50 +0000636<p>Now that we have the standard run-of-the-mill argument types out of the way,
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000637lets get a little wild and crazy. Lets say that we want our optimizer to accept
638a <b>list</b> of optimizations to perform, allowing duplicates. For example, we
639might want to run: "<tt>compiler -dce -constprop -inline -dce -strip</tt>". In
640this case, the order of the arguments and the number of appearances is very
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000641important. This is what the "<tt><a href="#cl::list">cl::list</a></tt>"
642template is for. First, start by defining an enum of the optimizations that you
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000643would like to perform:</p>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000644
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000645<div class="doc_code"><pre>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000646enum Opts {
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000647 // 'inline' is a C++ keyword, so name it 'inlining'
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000648 dce, constprop, inlining, strip
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000649};
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000650</pre></div>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000651
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000652<p>Then define your "<tt><a href="#cl::list">cl::list</a></tt>" variable:</p>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000653
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000654<div class="doc_code"><pre>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000655<a href="#cl::list">cl::list</a>&lt;Opts&gt; OptimizationList(<a href="#cl::desc">cl::desc</a>("<i>Available Optimizations:</i>"),
656 <a href="#cl::values">cl::values</a>(
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000657 clEnumVal(dce , "<i>Dead Code Elimination</i>"),
Misha Brukman82c89b92003-05-20 21:01:22 +0000658 clEnumVal(constprop , "<i>Constant Propagation</i>"),
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000659 clEnumValN(inlining, "<i>inline</i>", "<i>Procedure Integration</i>"),
660 clEnumVal(strip , "<i>Strip Symbols</i>"),
Chris Lattnerb406ead2004-07-16 00:10:54 +0000661 clEnumValEnd));
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000662</pre></div>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000663
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000664<p>This defines a variable that is conceptually of the type
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000665"<tt>std::vector&lt;enum Opts&gt;</tt>". Thus, you can access it with standard
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000666vector methods:</p>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000667
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000668<div class="doc_code"><pre>
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000669 for (unsigned i = 0; i != OptimizationList.size(); ++i)
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000670 switch (OptimizationList[i])
671 ...
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000672</pre></div>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000673
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000674<p>... to iterate through the list of options specified.</p>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000675
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000676<p>Note that the "<tt><a href="#cl::list">cl::list</a></tt>" template is
677completely general and may be used with any data types or other arguments that
678you can use with the "<tt><a href="#cl::opt">cl::opt</a></tt>" template. One
679especially useful way to use a list is to capture all of the positional
680arguments together if there may be more than one specified. In the case of a
681linker, for example, the linker takes several '<tt>.o</tt>' files, and needs to
682capture them into a list. This is naturally specified as:</p>
Chris Lattner3e5fe172002-04-13 18:35:59 +0000683
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000684<div class="doc_code"><pre>
Chris Lattner3e5fe172002-04-13 18:35:59 +0000685...
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000686<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>);
Chris Lattner3e5fe172002-04-13 18:35:59 +0000687...
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000688</pre></div>
Chris Lattner3e5fe172002-04-13 18:35:59 +0000689
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000690<p>This variable works just like a "<tt>vector&lt;string&gt;</tt>" object. As
Chris Lattnerae853632002-07-25 19:27:01 +0000691such, accessing the list is simple, just like above. In this example, we used
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000692the <tt><a href="#cl::OneOrMore">cl::OneOrMore</a></tt> modifier to inform the
693CommandLine library that it is an error if the user does not specify any
694<tt>.o</tt> files on our command line. Again, this just reduces the amount of
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000695checking we have to do.</p>
Chris Lattner3e5fe172002-04-13 18:35:59 +0000696
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000697</div>
Chris Lattner3e5fe172002-04-13 18:35:59 +0000698
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +0000699<!-- ======================================================================= -->
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +0000700<h3>
Jim Laskey1d8f6262005-08-25 22:52:43 +0000701 <a name="bits">Collecting options as a set of flags</a>
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +0000702</h3>
Jim Laskey1d8f6262005-08-25 22:52:43 +0000703
NAKAMURA Takumif5af6ad2011-04-23 00:30:22 +0000704<div>
Jim Laskey1d8f6262005-08-25 22:52:43 +0000705
706<p>Instead of collecting sets of options in a list, it is also possible to
Dan Gohman621a4152010-02-26 20:18:32 +0000707gather information for enum values in a <b>bit vector</b>. The representation used by
Jim Laskey22b7dfa2005-08-26 09:25:54 +0000708the <a href="#bits"><tt>cl::bits</tt></a> class is an <tt>unsigned</tt>
Jim Laskey1d8f6262005-08-25 22:52:43 +0000709integer. An enum value is represented by a 0/1 in the enum's ordinal value bit
710position. 1 indicating that the enum was specified, 0 otherwise. As each
711specified value is parsed, the resulting enum's bit is set in the option's bit
712vector:</p>
713
714<div class="doc_code"><pre>
715 <i>bits</i> |= 1 << (unsigned)<i>enum</i>;
716</pre></div>
717
Jim Laskey26029222005-08-25 23:01:25 +0000718<p>Options that are specified multiple times are redundant. Any instances after
719the first are discarded.</p>
Jim Laskey1d8f6262005-08-25 22:52:43 +0000720
721<p>Reworking the above list example, we could replace <a href="#list">
722<tt>cl::list</tt></a> with <a href="#bits"><tt>cl::bits</tt></a>:</p>
723
724<div class="doc_code"><pre>
725<a href="#cl::bits">cl::bits</a>&lt;Opts&gt; OptimizationBits(<a href="#cl::desc">cl::desc</a>("<i>Available Optimizations:</i>"),
726 <a href="#cl::values">cl::values</a>(
727 clEnumVal(dce , "<i>Dead Code Elimination</i>"),
728 clEnumVal(constprop , "<i>Constant Propagation</i>"),
729 clEnumValN(inlining, "<i>inline</i>", "<i>Procedure Integration</i>"),
730 clEnumVal(strip , "<i>Strip Symbols</i>"),
731 clEnumValEnd));
732</pre></div>
733
734<p>To test to see if <tt>constprop</tt> was specified, we can use the
735<tt>cl:bits::isSet</tt> function:</p>
736
737<div class="doc_code"><pre>
738 if (OptimizationBits.isSet(constprop)) {
739 ...
740 }
741</pre></div>
742
743<p>It's also possible to get the raw bit vector using the
744<tt>cl::bits::getBits</tt> function:</p>
745
746<div class="doc_code"><pre>
Jim Laskey22b7dfa2005-08-26 09:25:54 +0000747 unsigned bits = OptimizationBits.getBits();
Jim Laskey1d8f6262005-08-25 22:52:43 +0000748</pre></div>
749
750<p>Finally, if external storage is used, then the location specified must be of
Jim Laskey22b7dfa2005-08-26 09:25:54 +0000751<b>type</b> <tt>unsigned</tt>. In all other ways a <a
Chris Lattner8b44b902008-01-09 19:28:50 +0000752href="#bits"><tt>cl::bits</tt></a> option is equivalent to a <a
Jim Laskey22b7dfa2005-08-26 09:25:54 +0000753href="#list"> <tt>cl::list</tt></a> option.</p>
Jim Laskey1d8f6262005-08-25 22:52:43 +0000754
755</div>
756
757
758<!-- ======================================================================= -->
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +0000759<h3>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000760 <a name="description">Adding freeform text to help output</a>
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +0000761</h3>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +0000762
NAKAMURA Takumif5af6ad2011-04-23 00:30:22 +0000763<div>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000764
765<p>As our program grows and becomes more mature, we may decide to put summary
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +0000766information about what it does into the help output. The help output is styled
767to look similar to a Unix <tt>man</tt> page, providing concise information about
768a program. Unix <tt>man</tt> pages, however often have a description about what
769the program does. To add this to your CommandLine program, simply pass a third
770argument to the <a
771href="#cl::ParseCommandLineOptions"><tt>cl::ParseCommandLineOptions</tt></a>
772call in main. This additional argument is then printed as the overview
773information for your program, allowing you to include any additional information
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000774that you want. For example:</p>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +0000775
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000776<div class="doc_code"><pre>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +0000777int main(int argc, char **argv) {
778 <a href="#cl::ParseCommandLineOptions">cl::ParseCommandLineOptions</a>(argc, argv, " CommandLine compiler example\n\n"
779 " This program blah blah blah...\n");
780 ...
781}
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000782</pre></div>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +0000783
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000784<p>would yield the help output:</p>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +0000785
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000786<div class="doc_code"><pre>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +0000787<b>OVERVIEW: CommandLine compiler example
788
789 This program blah blah blah...</b>
790
791USAGE: compiler [options] &lt;input file&gt;
792
793OPTIONS:
794 ...
Duncan Sands7e7ae5a2010-02-18 14:08:13 +0000795 -help - display available options (-help-hidden for more)
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +0000796 -o &lt;filename&gt; - Specify output filename
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000797</pre></div>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +0000798
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000799</div>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +0000800
NAKAMURA Takumif5af6ad2011-04-23 00:30:22 +0000801</div>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +0000802
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000803<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +0000804<h2>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000805 <a name="referenceguide">Reference Guide</a>
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +0000806</h2>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +0000807<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
808
NAKAMURA Takumif5af6ad2011-04-23 00:30:22 +0000809<div>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000810
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000811<p>Now that you know the basics of how to use the CommandLine library, this
812section will give you the detailed information you need to tune how command line
813options work, as well as information on more "advanced" command line option
814processing capabilities.</p>
815
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000816<!-- ======================================================================= -->
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +0000817<h3>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000818 <a name="positional">Positional Arguments</a>
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +0000819</h3>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000820
NAKAMURA Takumif5af6ad2011-04-23 00:30:22 +0000821<div>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000822
823<p>Positional arguments are those arguments that are not named, and are not
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000824specified with a hyphen. Positional arguments should be used when an option is
825specified by its position alone. For example, the standard Unix <tt>grep</tt>
826tool takes a regular expression argument, and an optional filename to search
827through (which defaults to standard input if a filename is not specified).
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000828Using the CommandLine library, this would be specified as:</p>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000829
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000830<div class="doc_code"><pre>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000831<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>);
832<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>"));
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000833</pre></div>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000834
Duncan Sands7e7ae5a2010-02-18 14:08:13 +0000835<p>Given these two option declarations, the <tt>-help</tt> output for our grep
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000836replacement would look like this:</p>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000837
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000838<div class="doc_code"><pre>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +0000839USAGE: spiffygrep [options] <b>&lt;regular expression&gt; &lt;input file&gt;</b>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000840
841OPTIONS:
Duncan Sands7e7ae5a2010-02-18 14:08:13 +0000842 -help - display available options (-help-hidden for more)
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000843</pre></div>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000844
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000845<p>... and the resultant program could be used just like the standard
846<tt>grep</tt> tool.</p>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000847
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000848<p>Positional arguments are sorted by their order of construction. This means
849that command line options will be ordered according to how they are listed in a
Reid Spencer2c8ab582004-08-13 20:19:14 +0000850.cpp file, but will not have an ordering defined if the positional arguments
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000851are defined in multiple .cpp files. The fix for this problem is simply to
852define all of your positional arguments in one .cpp file.</p>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000853
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000854<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +0000855<h4>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000856 <a name="--">Specifying positional options with hyphens</a>
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +0000857</h4>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000858
NAKAMURA Takumif5af6ad2011-04-23 00:30:22 +0000859<div>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000860
861<p>Sometimes you may want to specify a value to your positional argument that
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000862starts with a hyphen (for example, searching for '<tt>-foo</tt>' in a file). At
863first, you will have trouble doing this, because it will try to find an argument
864named '<tt>-foo</tt>', and will fail (and single quotes will not save you).
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000865Note that the system <tt>grep</tt> has the same problem:</p>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000866
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000867<div class="doc_code"><pre>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000868 $ spiffygrep '-foo' test.txt
Duncan Sands7e7ae5a2010-02-18 14:08:13 +0000869 Unknown command line argument '-foo'. Try: spiffygrep -help'
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000870
871 $ grep '-foo' test.txt
872 grep: illegal option -- f
873 grep: illegal option -- o
874 grep: illegal option -- o
875 Usage: grep -hblcnsviw pattern file . . .
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000876</pre></div>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000877
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000878<p>The solution for this problem is the same for both your tool and the system
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000879version: use the '<tt>--</tt>' marker. When the user specifies '<tt>--</tt>' on
880the command line, it is telling the program that all options after the
881'<tt>--</tt>' should be treated as positional arguments, not options. Thus, we
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000882can use it like this:</p>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000883
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000884<div class="doc_code"><pre>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000885 $ spiffygrep -- -foo test.txt
886 ...output...
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000887</pre></div>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000888
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000889</div>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000890
891<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +0000892<h4>
Reid Spencer2c8ab582004-08-13 20:19:14 +0000893 <a name="getPosition">Determining absolute position with getPosition()</a>
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +0000894</h4>
NAKAMURA Takumif5af6ad2011-04-23 00:30:22 +0000895<div>
Reid Spencer2c8ab582004-08-13 20:19:14 +0000896 <p>Sometimes an option can affect or modify the meaning of another option. For
897 example, consider <tt>gcc</tt>'s <tt>-x LANG</tt> option. This tells
898 <tt>gcc</tt> to ignore the suffix of subsequent positional arguments and force
899 the file to be interpreted as if it contained source code in language
Chris Lattner8eedc9e2008-04-01 18:02:36 +0000900 <tt>LANG</tt>. In order to handle this properly, you need to know the
Anton Korobeynikov45982a52008-02-20 12:38:31 +0000901 absolute position of each argument, especially those in lists, so their
902 interaction(s) can be applied correctly. This is also useful for options like
903 <tt>-llibname</tt> which is actually a positional argument that starts with
Reid Spencer2c8ab582004-08-13 20:19:14 +0000904 a dash.</p>
905 <p>So, generally, the problem is that you have two <tt>cl::list</tt> variables
906 that interact in some way. To ensure the correct interaction, you can use the
907 <tt>cl::list::getPosition(optnum)</tt> method. This method returns the
908 absolute position (as found on the command line) of the <tt>optnum</tt>
909 item in the <tt>cl::list</tt>.</p>
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000910 <p>The idiom for usage is like this:</p>
Anton Korobeynikov45982a52008-02-20 12:38:31 +0000911
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000912 <div class="doc_code"><pre>
Reid Spencer2c8ab582004-08-13 20:19:14 +0000913 static cl::list&lt;std::string&gt; Files(cl::Positional, cl::OneOrMore);
Chris Lattner8b44b902008-01-09 19:28:50 +0000914 static cl::list&lt;std::string&gt; Libraries("l", cl::ZeroOrMore);
Reid Spencer2c8ab582004-08-13 20:19:14 +0000915
916 int main(int argc, char**argv) {
917 // ...
918 std::vector&lt;std::string&gt;::iterator fileIt = Files.begin();
919 std::vector&lt;std::string&gt;::iterator libIt = Libraries.begin();
920 unsigned libPos = 0, filePos = 0;
921 while ( 1 ) {
922 if ( libIt != Libraries.end() )
923 libPos = Libraries.getPosition( libIt - Libraries.begin() );
924 else
925 libPos = 0;
926 if ( fileIt != Files.end() )
927 filePos = Files.getPosition( fileIt - Files.begin() );
928 else
929 filePos = 0;
930
931 if ( filePos != 0 &amp;&amp; (libPos == 0 || filePos &lt; libPos) ) {
932 // Source File Is next
933 ++fileIt;
934 }
935 else if ( libPos != 0 &amp;&amp; (filePos == 0 || libPos &lt; filePos) ) {
936 // Library is next
937 ++libIt;
938 }
939 else
940 break; // we're done with the list
941 }
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000942 }</pre></div>
943
Reid Spencer2c8ab582004-08-13 20:19:14 +0000944 <p>Note that, for compatibility reasons, the <tt>cl::opt</tt> also supports an
945 <tt>unsigned getPosition()</tt> option that will provide the absolute position
Anton Korobeynikov45982a52008-02-20 12:38:31 +0000946 of that option. You can apply the same approach as above with a
Reid Spencer2c8ab582004-08-13 20:19:14 +0000947 <tt>cl::opt</tt> and a <tt>cl::list</tt> option as you can with two lists.</p>
948</div>
949
950<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +0000951<h4>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000952 <a name="cl::ConsumeAfter">The <tt>cl::ConsumeAfter</tt> modifier</a>
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +0000953</h4>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000954
NAKAMURA Takumif5af6ad2011-04-23 00:30:22 +0000955<div>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000956
957<p>The <tt>cl::ConsumeAfter</tt> <a href="#formatting">formatting option</a> is
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000958used to construct programs that use "interpreter style" option processing. With
959this style of option processing, all arguments specified after the last
960positional argument are treated as special interpreter arguments that are not
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000961interpreted by the command line argument.</p>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000962
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000963<p>As a concrete example, lets say we are developing a replacement for the
964standard Unix Bourne shell (<tt>/bin/sh</tt>). To run <tt>/bin/sh</tt>, first
965you specify options to the shell itself (like <tt>-x</tt> which turns on trace
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000966output), then you specify the name of the script to run, then you specify
Chris Lattner8b44b902008-01-09 19:28:50 +0000967arguments to the script. These arguments to the script are parsed by the Bourne
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000968shell command line option processor, but are not interpreted as options to the
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000969shell itself. Using the CommandLine library, we would specify this as:</p>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000970
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000971<div class="doc_code"><pre>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000972<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>("-"));
973<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>"));
974<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>"));
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000975</pre></div>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000976
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000977<p>which automatically provides the help output:</p>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000978
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000979<div class="doc_code"><pre>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +0000980USAGE: spiffysh [options] <b>&lt;input script&gt; &lt;program arguments&gt;...</b>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000981
982OPTIONS:
Duncan Sands7e7ae5a2010-02-18 14:08:13 +0000983 -help - display available options (-help-hidden for more)
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +0000984 <b>-x - Enable trace output</b>
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000985</pre></div>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000986
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +0000987<p>At runtime, if we run our new shell replacement as `<tt>spiffysh -x test.sh
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000988-a -x -y bar</tt>', the <tt>Trace</tt> variable will be set to true, the
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000989<tt>Script</tt> variable will be set to "<tt>test.sh</tt>", and the
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000990<tt>Argv</tt> list will contain <tt>["-a", "-x", "-y", "bar"]</tt>, because they
991were specified after the last positional argument (which is the script
992name).</p>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +0000993
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000994<p>There are several limitations to when <tt>cl::ConsumeAfter</tt> options can
995be specified. For example, only one <tt>cl::ConsumeAfter</tt> can be specified
996per program, there must be at least one <a href="#positional">positional
Chris Lattnerbe801bf2004-05-06 22:03:59 +0000997argument</a> specified, there must not be any <a href="#cl::list">cl::list</a>
998positional arguments, and the <tt>cl::ConsumeAfter</tt> option should be a <a
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +0000999href="#cl::list">cl::list</a> option.</p>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001000
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001001</div>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001002
NAKAMURA Takumif5af6ad2011-04-23 00:30:22 +00001003</div>
1004
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001005<!-- ======================================================================= -->
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +00001006<h3>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001007 <a name="storage">Internal vs External Storage</a>
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +00001008</h3>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001009
NAKAMURA Takumif5af6ad2011-04-23 00:30:22 +00001010<div>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001011
1012<p>By default, all command line options automatically hold the value that they
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001013parse from the command line. This is very convenient in the common case,
1014especially when combined with the ability to define command line options in the
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001015files that use them. This is called the internal storage model.</p>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001016
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001017<p>Sometimes, however, it is nice to separate the command line option processing
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001018code from the storage of the value parsed. For example, lets say that we have a
1019'<tt>-debug</tt>' option that we would like to use to enable debug information
1020across the entire body of our program. In this case, the boolean value
Benjamin Kramer8040cd32009-10-12 14:46:08 +00001021controlling the debug code should be globally accessible (in a header file, for
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001022example) yet the command line option processing code should not be exposed to
1023all of these clients (requiring lots of .cpp files to #include
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001024<tt>CommandLine.h</tt>).</p>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001025
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001026<p>To do this, set up your .h file with your option, like this for example:</p>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001027
Misha Brukman1fc9f8e2005-02-09 22:49:05 +00001028<div class="doc_code">
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001029<pre>
1030<i>// DebugFlag.h - Get access to the '-debug' command line option
1031//
1032
1033// DebugFlag - This boolean is set to true if the '-debug' command line option
1034// is specified. This should probably not be referenced directly, instead, use
1035// the DEBUG macro below.
1036//</i>
1037extern bool DebugFlag;
1038
1039<i>// DEBUG macro - This macro should be used by code to emit debug information.
1040// In the '-debug' option is specified on the command line, and if this is a
1041// debug build, then the code specified as the option to the macro will be
Chris Lattner8b44b902008-01-09 19:28:50 +00001042// executed. Otherwise it will not be.</i>
Misha Brukman1fc9f8e2005-02-09 22:49:05 +00001043<span class="doc_hilite">#ifdef NDEBUG
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001044#define DEBUG(X)
1045#else
Misha Brukman1fc9f8e2005-02-09 22:49:05 +00001046#define DEBUG(X)</span> do { if (DebugFlag) { X; } } while (0)
1047<span class="doc_hilite">#endif</span>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001048</pre>
Misha Brukman1fc9f8e2005-02-09 22:49:05 +00001049</div>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001050
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001051<p>This allows clients to blissfully use the <tt>DEBUG()</tt> macro, or the
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001052<tt>DebugFlag</tt> explicitly if they want to. Now we just need to be able to
1053set the <tt>DebugFlag</tt> boolean when the option is set. To do this, we pass
Chris Lattner8b44b902008-01-09 19:28:50 +00001054an additional argument to our command line argument processor, and we specify
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001055where to fill in with the <a href="#cl::location">cl::location</a>
1056attribute:</p>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001057
Misha Brukman1fc9f8e2005-02-09 22:49:05 +00001058<div class="doc_code">
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001059<pre>
Misha Brukman1fc9f8e2005-02-09 22:49:05 +00001060bool DebugFlag; <i>// the actual value</i>
Chris Lattner589a4cc2003-08-01 21:30:37 +00001061static <a href="#cl::opt">cl::opt</a>&lt;bool, true&gt; <i>// The parser</i>
Misha Brukman1fc9f8e2005-02-09 22:49:05 +00001062Debug("<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));
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001063</pre>
Misha Brukman1fc9f8e2005-02-09 22:49:05 +00001064</div>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001065
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001066<p>In the above example, we specify "<tt>true</tt>" as the second argument to
Misha Brukman1fc9f8e2005-02-09 22:49:05 +00001067the <tt><a href="#cl::opt">cl::opt</a></tt> template, indicating that the
1068template should not maintain a copy of the value itself. In addition to this,
1069we specify the <tt><a href="#cl::location">cl::location</a></tt> attribute, so
1070that <tt>DebugFlag</tt> is automatically set.</p>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001071
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001072</div>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001073
1074<!-- ======================================================================= -->
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +00001075<h3>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001076 <a name="attributes">Option Attributes</a>
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +00001077</h3>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001078
NAKAMURA Takumif5af6ad2011-04-23 00:30:22 +00001079<div>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001080
1081<p>This section describes the basic attributes that you can specify on
1082options.</p>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001083
1084<ul>
1085
1086<li>The option name attribute (which is required for all options, except <a
1087href="#positional">positional options</a>) specifies what the option name is.
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001088This option is specified in simple double quotes:
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001089
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001090<pre>
1091<a href="#cl::opt">cl::opt</a>&lt;<b>bool</b>&gt; Quiet("<i>quiet</i>");
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001092</pre>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001093
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001094</li>
1095
1096<li><a name="cl::desc">The <b><tt>cl::desc</tt></b></a> attribute specifies a
Duncan Sands7e7ae5a2010-02-18 14:08:13 +00001097description for the option to be shown in the <tt>-help</tt> output for the
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001098program.</li>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001099
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001100<li><a name="cl::value_desc">The <b><tt>cl::value_desc</tt></b></a> attribute
Duncan Sands7e7ae5a2010-02-18 14:08:13 +00001101specifies a string that can be used to fine tune the <tt>-help</tt> output for
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001102a command line option. Look <a href="#value_desc_example">here</a> for an
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001103example.</li>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001104
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001105<li><a name="cl::init">The <b><tt>cl::init</tt></b></a> attribute specifies an
Benjamin Kramer8040cd32009-10-12 14:46:08 +00001106initial value for a <a href="#cl::opt">scalar</a> option. If this attribute is
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001107not specified then the command line option value defaults to the value created
Brian Gaeke9d292ff2003-08-19 22:56:22 +00001108by the default constructor for the type. <b>Warning</b>: If you specify both
1109<b><tt>cl::init</tt></b> and <b><tt>cl::location</tt></b> for an option,
1110you must specify <b><tt>cl::location</tt></b> first, so that when the
1111command-line parser sees <b><tt>cl::init</tt></b>, it knows where to put the
1112initial value. (You will get an error at runtime if you don't put them in
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001113the right order.)</li>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001114
Mikhail Glushenkovdf04ead2009-06-17 03:09:39 +00001115<li><a name="cl::location">The <b><tt>cl::location</tt></b></a> attribute where
1116to store the value for a parsed command line option if using external storage.
1117See the section on <a href="#storage">Internal vs External Storage</a> for more
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001118information.</li>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001119
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001120<li><a name="cl::aliasopt">The <b><tt>cl::aliasopt</tt></b></a> attribute
Misha Brukman1fc9f8e2005-02-09 22:49:05 +00001121specifies which option a <tt><a href="#cl::alias">cl::alias</a></tt> option is
1122an alias for.</li>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001123
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001124<li><a name="cl::values">The <b><tt>cl::values</tt></b></a> attribute specifies
1125the string-to-value mapping to be used by the generic parser. It takes a
Anton Korobeynikov45982a52008-02-20 12:38:31 +00001126<b>clEnumValEnd terminated</b> list of (option, value, description) triplets
Chris Lattnerb406ead2004-07-16 00:10:54 +00001127that
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001128specify the option name, the value mapped to, and the description shown in the
Duncan Sands7e7ae5a2010-02-18 14:08:13 +00001129<tt>-help</tt> for the tool. Because the generic parser is used most
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001130frequently with enum values, two macros are often useful:
1131
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001132<ol>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001133
1134<li><a name="clEnumVal">The <b><tt>clEnumVal</tt></b></a> macro is used as a
1135nice simple way to specify a triplet for an enum. This macro automatically
1136makes the option name be the same as the enum name. The first option to the
1137macro is the enum, the second is the description for the command line
1138option.</li>
1139
1140<li><a name="clEnumValN">The <b><tt>clEnumValN</tt></b></a> macro is used to
1141specify macro options where the option name doesn't equal the enum name. For
1142this macro, the first argument is the enum value, the second is the flag name,
1143and the second is the description.</li>
1144
Mikhail Glushenkovdf04ead2009-06-17 03:09:39 +00001145</ol>
1146
1147You will get a compile time error if you try to use cl::values with a parser
1148that does not support it.</li>
1149
Mikhail Glushenkov7059d472009-01-16 22:54:19 +00001150<li><a name="cl::multi_val">The <b><tt>cl::multi_val</tt></b></a>
1151attribute specifies that this option takes has multiple values
1152(example: <tt>-sectalign segname sectname sectvalue</tt>). This
1153attribute takes one unsigned argument - the number of values for the
1154option. This attribute is valid only on <tt>cl::list</tt> options (and
1155will fail with compile error if you try to use it with other option
1156types). It is allowed to use all of the usual modifiers on
1157multi-valued options (besides <tt>cl::ValueDisallowed</tt>,
1158obviously).</li>
1159
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001160</ul>
1161
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001162</div>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001163
1164<!-- ======================================================================= -->
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +00001165<h3>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001166 <a name="modifiers">Option Modifiers</a>
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +00001167</h3>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001168
NAKAMURA Takumif5af6ad2011-04-23 00:30:22 +00001169<div>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001170
1171<p>Option modifiers are the flags and expressions that you pass into the
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001172constructors for <tt><a href="#cl::opt">cl::opt</a></tt> and <tt><a
1173href="#cl::list">cl::list</a></tt>. These modifiers give you the ability to
Duncan Sands7e7ae5a2010-02-18 14:08:13 +00001174tweak how options are parsed and how <tt>-help</tt> output is generated to fit
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001175your application well.</p>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001176
Benjamin Kramer8040cd32009-10-12 14:46:08 +00001177<p>These options fall into five main categories:</p>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001178
1179<ol>
Duncan Sands7e7ae5a2010-02-18 14:08:13 +00001180<li><a href="#hiding">Hiding an option from <tt>-help</tt> output</a></li>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001181<li><a href="#numoccurrences">Controlling the number of occurrences
1182 required and allowed</a></li>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001183<li><a href="#valrequired">Controlling whether or not a value must be
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001184 specified</a></li>
1185<li><a href="#formatting">Controlling other formatting options</a></li>
1186<li><a href="#misc">Miscellaneous option modifiers</a></li>
1187</ol>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001188
Benjamin Kramer8040cd32009-10-12 14:46:08 +00001189<p>It is not possible to specify two options from the same category (you'll get
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001190a runtime error) to a single option, except for options in the miscellaneous
Benjamin Kramer8040cd32009-10-12 14:46:08 +00001191category. The CommandLine library specifies defaults for all of these settings
Chris Lattner32a32842003-05-22 20:36:06 +00001192that are the most useful in practice and the most common, which mean that you
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001193usually shouldn't have to worry about these.</p>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001194
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001195<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +00001196<h4>
Duncan Sands7e7ae5a2010-02-18 14:08:13 +00001197 <a name="hiding">Hiding an option from <tt>-help</tt> output</a>
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +00001198</h4>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001199
NAKAMURA Takumif5af6ad2011-04-23 00:30:22 +00001200<div>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001201
1202<p>The <tt>cl::NotHidden</tt>, <tt>cl::Hidden</tt>, and
1203<tt>cl::ReallyHidden</tt> modifiers are used to control whether or not an option
Duncan Sands7e7ae5a2010-02-18 14:08:13 +00001204appears in the <tt>-help</tt> and <tt>-help-hidden</tt> output for the
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001205compiled program:</p>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001206
1207<ul>
1208
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001209<li><a name="cl::NotHidden">The <b><tt>cl::NotHidden</tt></b></a> modifier
1210(which is the default for <tt><a href="#cl::opt">cl::opt</a></tt> and <tt><a
Chris Lattner8b44b902008-01-09 19:28:50 +00001211href="#cl::list">cl::list</a></tt> options) indicates the option is to appear
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001212in both help listings.</li>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001213
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001214<li><a name="cl::Hidden">The <b><tt>cl::Hidden</tt></b></a> modifier (which is the
Chris Lattner8b44b902008-01-09 19:28:50 +00001215default for <tt><a href="#cl::alias">cl::alias</a></tt> options) indicates that
Duncan Sands7e7ae5a2010-02-18 14:08:13 +00001216the option should not appear in the <tt>-help</tt> output, but should appear in
1217the <tt>-help-hidden</tt> output.</li>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001218
Chris Lattner8b44b902008-01-09 19:28:50 +00001219<li><a name="cl::ReallyHidden">The <b><tt>cl::ReallyHidden</tt></b></a> modifier
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001220indicates that the option should not appear in any help output.</li>
1221
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001222</ul>
1223
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001224</div>
1225
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001226<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +00001227<h4>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001228 <a name="numoccurrences">Controlling the number of occurrences required and
1229 allowed</a>
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +00001230</h4>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001231
NAKAMURA Takumif5af6ad2011-04-23 00:30:22 +00001232<div>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001233
1234<p>This group of options is used to control how many time an option is allowed
1235(or required) to be specified on the command line of your program. Specifying a
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001236value for this setting allows the CommandLine library to do error checking for
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001237you.</p>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001238
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001239<p>The allowed values for this option group are:</p>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001240
1241<ul>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001242
1243<li><a name="cl::Optional">The <b><tt>cl::Optional</tt></b></a> modifier (which
1244is the default for the <tt><a href="#cl::opt">cl::opt</a></tt> and <tt><a
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001245href="#cl::alias">cl::alias</a></tt> classes) indicates that your program will
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001246allow either zero or one occurrence of the option to be specified.</li>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001247
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001248<li><a name="cl::ZeroOrMore">The <b><tt>cl::ZeroOrMore</tt></b></a> modifier
1249(which is the default for the <tt><a href="#cl::list">cl::list</a></tt> class)
1250indicates that your program will allow the option to be specified zero or more
1251times.</li>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001252
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001253<li><a name="cl::Required">The <b><tt>cl::Required</tt></b></a> modifier
1254indicates that the specified option must be specified exactly one time.</li>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001255
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001256<li><a name="cl::OneOrMore">The <b><tt>cl::OneOrMore</tt></b></a> modifier
1257indicates that the option must be specified at least one time.</li>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001258
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001259<li>The <b><tt>cl::ConsumeAfter</tt></b> modifier is described in the <a
Chris Lattner8b44b902008-01-09 19:28:50 +00001260href="#positional">Positional arguments section</a>.</li>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001261
1262</ul>
1263
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001264<p>If an option is not specified, then the value of the option is equal to the
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001265value specified by the <tt><a href="#cl::init">cl::init</a></tt> attribute. If
1266the <tt><a href="#cl::init">cl::init</a></tt> attribute is not specified, the
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001267option value is initialized with the default constructor for the data type.</p>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001268
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001269<p>If an option is specified multiple times for an option of the <tt><a
1270href="#cl::opt">cl::opt</a></tt> class, only the last value will be
1271retained.</p>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001272
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001273</div>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001274
1275<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +00001276<h4>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001277 <a name="valrequired">Controlling whether or not a value must be specified</a>
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +00001278</h4>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001279
NAKAMURA Takumif5af6ad2011-04-23 00:30:22 +00001280<div>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001281
1282<p>This group of options is used to control whether or not the option allows a
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001283value to be present. In the case of the CommandLine library, a value is either
1284specified with an equal sign (e.g. '<tt>-index-depth=17</tt>') or as a trailing
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001285string (e.g. '<tt>-o a.out</tt>').</p>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001286
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001287<p>The allowed values for this option group are:</p>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001288
1289<ul>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001290
1291<li><a name="cl::ValueOptional">The <b><tt>cl::ValueOptional</tt></b></a> modifier
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001292(which is the default for <tt>bool</tt> typed options) specifies that it is
1293acceptable to have a value, or not. A boolean argument can be enabled just by
1294appearing on the command line, or it can have an explicit '<tt>-foo=true</tt>'.
1295If an option is specified with this mode, it is illegal for the value to be
1296provided without the equal sign. Therefore '<tt>-foo true</tt>' is illegal. To
1297get this behavior, you must use the <a
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001298href="#cl::ValueRequired">cl::ValueRequired</a> modifier.</li>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001299
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001300<li><a name="cl::ValueRequired">The <b><tt>cl::ValueRequired</tt></b></a> modifier
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001301(which is the default for all other types except for <a
1302href="#onealternative">unnamed alternatives using the generic parser</a>)
1303specifies that a value must be provided. This mode informs the command line
1304library that if an option is not provides with an equal sign, that the next
1305argument provided must be the value. This allows things like '<tt>-o
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001306a.out</tt>' to work.</li>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001307
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001308<li><a name="cl::ValueDisallowed">The <b><tt>cl::ValueDisallowed</tt></b></a>
1309modifier (which is the default for <a href="#onealternative">unnamed
1310alternatives using the generic parser</a>) indicates that it is a runtime error
1311for the user to specify a value. This can be provided to disallow users from
1312providing options to boolean options (like '<tt>-foo=true</tt>').</li>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001313
1314</ul>
1315
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001316<p>In general, the default values for this option group work just like you would
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001317want them to. As mentioned above, you can specify the <a
1318href="#cl::ValueDisallowed">cl::ValueDisallowed</a> modifier to a boolean
1319argument to restrict your command line parser. These options are mostly useful
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001320when <a href="#extensionguide">extending the library</a>.</p>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001321
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001322</div>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001323
1324<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +00001325<h4>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001326 <a name="formatting">Controlling other formatting options</a>
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +00001327</h4>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001328
NAKAMURA Takumif5af6ad2011-04-23 00:30:22 +00001329<div>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001330
1331<p>The formatting option group is used to specify that the command line option
1332has special abilities and is otherwise different from other command line
Chris Lattner8b44b902008-01-09 19:28:50 +00001333arguments. As usual, you can only specify one of these arguments at most.</p>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001334
1335<ul>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001336
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001337<li><a name="cl::NormalFormatting">The <b><tt>cl::NormalFormatting</tt></b></a>
1338modifier (which is the default all options) specifies that this option is
1339"normal".</li>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001340
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001341<li><a name="cl::Positional">The <b><tt>cl::Positional</tt></b></a> modifier
Chris Lattner8b44b902008-01-09 19:28:50 +00001342specifies that this is a positional argument that does not have a command line
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001343option associated with it. See the <a href="#positional">Positional
1344Arguments</a> section for more information.</li>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001345
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001346<li>The <b><a href="#cl::ConsumeAfter"><tt>cl::ConsumeAfter</tt></a></b> modifier
1347specifies that this option is used to capture "interpreter style" arguments. See <a href="#cl::ConsumeAfter">this section for more information</a>.</li>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001348
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001349<li><a name="cl::Prefix">The <b><tt>cl::Prefix</tt></b></a> modifier specifies
Reid Spencer5f8448f2004-11-24 06:13:42 +00001350that this option prefixes its value. With 'Prefix' options, the equal sign does
1351not separate the value from the option name specified. Instead, the value is
1352everything after the prefix, including any equal sign if present. This is useful
1353for processing odd arguments like <tt>-lmalloc</tt> and <tt>-L/usr/lib</tt> in a
Misha Brukmanc43d9142005-05-10 22:05:27 +00001354linker tool or <tt>-DNAME=value</tt> in a compiler tool. Here, the
Reid Spencer5f8448f2004-11-24 06:13:42 +00001355'<tt>l</tt>', '<tt>D</tt>' and '<tt>L</tt>' options are normal string (or list)
Misha Brukmanc43d9142005-05-10 22:05:27 +00001356options, that have the <b><tt><a href="#cl::Prefix">cl::Prefix</a></tt></b>
1357modifier added to allow the CommandLine library to recognize them. Note that
1358<b><tt><a href="#cl::Prefix">cl::Prefix</a></tt></b> options must not have the
1359<b><tt><a href="#cl::ValueDisallowed">cl::ValueDisallowed</a></tt></b> modifier
1360specified.</li>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001361
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001362<li><a name="cl::Grouping">The <b><tt>cl::Grouping</tt></b></a> modifier is used
Chris Lattner8b44b902008-01-09 19:28:50 +00001363to implement Unix-style tools (like <tt>ls</tt>) that have lots of single letter
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001364arguments, but only require a single dash. For example, the '<tt>ls -labF</tt>'
1365command actually enables four different options, all of which are single
Misha Brukmanc43d9142005-05-10 22:05:27 +00001366letters. Note that <b><tt><a href="#cl::Grouping">cl::Grouping</a></tt></b>
1367options cannot have values.</li>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001368
1369</ul>
1370
Misha Brukmanc43d9142005-05-10 22:05:27 +00001371<p>The CommandLine library does not restrict how you use the <b><tt><a
1372href="#cl::Prefix">cl::Prefix</a></tt></b> or <b><tt><a
1373href="#cl::Grouping">cl::Grouping</a></tt></b> modifiers, but it is possible to
1374specify ambiguous argument settings. Thus, it is possible to have multiple
1375letter options that are prefix or grouping options, and they will still work as
1376designed.</p>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001377
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001378<p>To do this, the CommandLine library uses a greedy algorithm to parse the
1379input option into (potentially multiple) prefix and grouping options. The
1380strategy basically looks like this:</p>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001381
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +00001382<div class="doc_code"><tt>parse(string OrigInput) {</tt>
Misha Brukmanc53aefb2004-05-12 18:42:35 +00001383
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001384<ol>
1385<li><tt>string input = OrigInput;</tt>
1386<li><tt>if (isOption(input)) return getOption(input).parse();</tt>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>// Normal option</i>
1387<li><tt>while (!isOption(input) &amp;&amp; !input.empty()) input.pop_back();</tt>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>// Remove the last letter</i>
1388<li><tt>if (input.empty()) return error();</tt>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>// No matching option</i>
1389<li><tt>if (getOption(input).isPrefix())<br>
1390&nbsp;&nbsp;return getOption(input).parse(input);</tt>
1391<li><tt>while (!input.empty()) {&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>// Must be grouping options</i><br>
1392&nbsp;&nbsp;getOption(input).parse();<br>
1393&nbsp;&nbsp;OrigInput.erase(OrigInput.begin(), OrigInput.begin()+input.length());<br>
1394&nbsp;&nbsp;input = OrigInput;<br>
1395&nbsp;&nbsp;while (!isOption(input) &amp;&amp; !input.empty()) input.pop_back();<br>
1396}</tt>
Misha Brukmanc53aefb2004-05-12 18:42:35 +00001397<li><tt>if (!OrigInput.empty()) error();</tt></li>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001398</ol>
Misha Brukmanc53aefb2004-05-12 18:42:35 +00001399
1400<p><tt>}</tt></p>
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +00001401</div>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001402
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001403</div>
Chris Lattner32a32842003-05-22 20:36:06 +00001404
1405<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +00001406<h4>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001407 <a name="misc">Miscellaneous option modifiers</a>
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +00001408</h4>
Chris Lattner32a32842003-05-22 20:36:06 +00001409
NAKAMURA Takumif5af6ad2011-04-23 00:30:22 +00001410<div>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001411
1412<p>The miscellaneous option modifiers are the only flags where you can specify
1413more than one flag from the set: they are not mutually exclusive. These flags
1414specify boolean properties that modify the option.</p>
Chris Lattner32a32842003-05-22 20:36:06 +00001415
1416<ul>
1417
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001418<li><a name="cl::CommaSeparated">The <b><tt>cl::CommaSeparated</tt></b></a> modifier
Chris Lattner32a32842003-05-22 20:36:06 +00001419indicates that any commas specified for an option's value should be used to
1420split the value up into multiple values for the option. For example, these two
1421options are equivalent when <tt>cl::CommaSeparated</tt> is specified:
1422"<tt>-foo=a -foo=b -foo=c</tt>" and "<tt>-foo=a,b,c</tt>". This option only
1423makes sense to be used in a case where the option is allowed to accept one or
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001424more values (i.e. it is a <a href="#cl::list">cl::list</a> option).</li>
1425
Chris Lattnerbe801bf2004-05-06 22:03:59 +00001426<li><a name="cl::PositionalEatsArgs">The
1427<b><tt>cl::PositionalEatsArgs</tt></b></a> modifier (which only applies to
1428positional arguments, and only makes sense for lists) indicates that positional
1429argument should consume any strings after it (including strings that start with
1430a "-") up until another recognized positional argument. For example, if you
Chris Lattner8b44b902008-01-09 19:28:50 +00001431have two "eating" positional arguments, "<tt>pos1</tt>" and "<tt>pos2</tt>", the
Chris Lattnerbe801bf2004-05-06 22:03:59 +00001432string "<tt>-pos1 -foo -bar baz -pos2 -bork</tt>" would cause the "<tt>-foo -bar
1433-baz</tt>" strings to be applied to the "<tt>-pos1</tt>" option and the
1434"<tt>-bork</tt>" string to be applied to the "<tt>-pos2</tt>" option.</li>
1435
Anton Korobeynikov45982a52008-02-20 12:38:31 +00001436<li><a name="cl::Sink">The <b><tt>cl::Sink</tt></b></a> modifier is
1437used to handle unknown options. If there is at least one option with
Benjamin Kramere15192b2009-08-05 15:42:44 +00001438<tt>cl::Sink</tt> modifier specified, the parser passes
Anton Korobeynikov45982a52008-02-20 12:38:31 +00001439unrecognized option strings to it as values instead of signaling an
Benjamin Kramere15192b2009-08-05 15:42:44 +00001440error. As with <tt>cl::CommaSeparated</tt>, this modifier
Anton Korobeynikov45982a52008-02-20 12:38:31 +00001441only makes sense with a <a href="#cl::list">cl::list</a> option.</li>
1442
Chris Lattner32a32842003-05-22 20:36:06 +00001443</ul>
1444
Anton Korobeynikov45982a52008-02-20 12:38:31 +00001445<p>So far, these are the only three miscellaneous option modifiers.</p>
Chris Lattner32a32842003-05-22 20:36:06 +00001446
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001447</div>
Chris Lattner32a32842003-05-22 20:36:06 +00001448
Mikhail Glushenkovbeb4d822008-04-28 16:44:25 +00001449<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +00001450<h4>
Mikhail Glushenkovbeb4d822008-04-28 16:44:25 +00001451 <a name="response">Response files</a>
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +00001452</h4>
Mikhail Glushenkovbeb4d822008-04-28 16:44:25 +00001453
NAKAMURA Takumif5af6ad2011-04-23 00:30:22 +00001454<div>
Mikhail Glushenkovbeb4d822008-04-28 16:44:25 +00001455
1456<p>Some systems, such as certain variants of Microsoft Windows and
1457some older Unices have a relatively low limit on command-line
1458length. It is therefore customary to use the so-called 'response
1459files' to circumvent this restriction. These files are mentioned on
1460the command-line (using the "@file") syntax. The program reads these
1461files and inserts the contents into argv, thereby working around the
1462command-line length limits. Response files are enabled by an optional
1463fourth argument to
1464<a href="#cl::ParseEnvironmentOptions"><tt>cl::ParseEnvironmentOptions</tt></a>
1465and
1466<a href="#cl::ParseCommandLineOptions"><tt>cl::ParseCommandLineOptions</tt></a>.
1467</p>
1468
1469</div>
1470
NAKAMURA Takumif5af6ad2011-04-23 00:30:22 +00001471</div>
Mikhail Glushenkovbeb4d822008-04-28 16:44:25 +00001472
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001473<!-- ======================================================================= -->
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +00001474<h3>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001475 <a name="toplevel">Top-Level Classes and Functions</a>
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +00001476</h3>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001477
NAKAMURA Takumif5af6ad2011-04-23 00:30:22 +00001478<div>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001479
1480<p>Despite all of the built-in flexibility, the CommandLine option library
1481really only consists of one function (<a
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001482href="#cl::ParseCommandLineOptions"><tt>cl::ParseCommandLineOptions</tt></a>)
1483and three main classes: <a href="#cl::opt"><tt>cl::opt</tt></a>, <a
1484href="#cl::list"><tt>cl::list</tt></a>, and <a
1485href="#cl::alias"><tt>cl::alias</tt></a>. This section describes these three
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001486classes in detail.</p>
1487
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001488<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +00001489<h4>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001490 <a name="cl::ParseCommandLineOptions">The <tt>cl::ParseCommandLineOptions</tt>
1491 function</a>
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +00001492</h4>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001493
NAKAMURA Takumif5af6ad2011-04-23 00:30:22 +00001494<div>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001495
1496<p>The <tt>cl::ParseCommandLineOptions</tt> function is designed to be called
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001497directly from <tt>main</tt>, and is used to fill in the values of all of the
1498command line option variables once <tt>argc</tt> and <tt>argv</tt> are
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001499available.</p>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001500
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001501<p>The <tt>cl::ParseCommandLineOptions</tt> function requires two parameters
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001502(<tt>argc</tt> and <tt>argv</tt>), but may also take an optional third parameter
1503which holds <a href="#description">additional extra text</a> to emit when the
Duncan Sands7e7ae5a2010-02-18 14:08:13 +00001504<tt>-help</tt> option is invoked, and a fourth boolean parameter that enables
Mikhail Glushenkovbeb4d822008-04-28 16:44:25 +00001505<a href="#response">response files</a>.</p>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001506
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001507</div>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001508
1509<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +00001510<h4>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001511 <a name="cl::ParseEnvironmentOptions">The <tt>cl::ParseEnvironmentOptions</tt>
1512 function</a>
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +00001513</h4>
Brian Gaekee5842852003-08-19 23:11:43 +00001514
NAKAMURA Takumif5af6ad2011-04-23 00:30:22 +00001515<div>
Brian Gaekee5842852003-08-19 23:11:43 +00001516
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001517<p>The <tt>cl::ParseEnvironmentOptions</tt> function has mostly the same effects
1518as <a
1519href="#cl::ParseCommandLineOptions"><tt>cl::ParseCommandLineOptions</tt></a>,
1520except that it is designed to take values for options from an environment
1521variable, for those cases in which reading the command line is not convenient or
Chris Lattner8b44b902008-01-09 19:28:50 +00001522desired. It fills in the values of all the command line option variables just
1523like <a
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001524href="#cl::ParseCommandLineOptions"><tt>cl::ParseCommandLineOptions</tt></a>
1525does.</p>
1526
Mikhail Glushenkovbeb4d822008-04-28 16:44:25 +00001527<p>It takes four parameters: the name of the program (since <tt>argv</tt> may
Chris Lattner8b44b902008-01-09 19:28:50 +00001528not be available, it can't just look in <tt>argv[0]</tt>), the name of the
Mikhail Glushenkovbeb4d822008-04-28 16:44:25 +00001529environment variable to examine, the optional
Brian Gaekee5842852003-08-19 23:11:43 +00001530<a href="#description">additional extra text</a> to emit when the
Duncan Sands7e7ae5a2010-02-18 14:08:13 +00001531<tt>-help</tt> option is invoked, and the boolean
Benjamin Kramer8040cd32009-10-12 14:46:08 +00001532switch that controls whether <a href="#response">response files</a>
Mikhail Glushenkovbeb4d822008-04-28 16:44:25 +00001533should be read.</p>
Brian Gaekee5842852003-08-19 23:11:43 +00001534
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001535<p><tt>cl::ParseEnvironmentOptions</tt> will break the environment
Brian Gaekee5842852003-08-19 23:11:43 +00001536variable's value up into words and then process them using
1537<a href="#cl::ParseCommandLineOptions"><tt>cl::ParseCommandLineOptions</tt></a>.
1538<b>Note:</b> Currently <tt>cl::ParseEnvironmentOptions</tt> does not support
1539quoting, so an environment variable containing <tt>-option "foo bar"</tt> will
1540be parsed as three words, <tt>-option</tt>, <tt>"foo</tt>, and <tt>bar"</tt>,
1541which is different from what you would get from the shell with the same
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001542input.</p>
1543
1544</div>
Brian Gaekee5842852003-08-19 23:11:43 +00001545
1546<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +00001547<h4>
Reid Spencer2403b852006-06-05 17:30:16 +00001548 <a name="cl::SetVersionPrinter">The <tt>cl::SetVersionPrinter</tt>
1549 function</a>
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +00001550</h4>
Reid Spencer2403b852006-06-05 17:30:16 +00001551
NAKAMURA Takumif5af6ad2011-04-23 00:30:22 +00001552<div>
Reid Spencer2403b852006-06-05 17:30:16 +00001553
1554<p>The <tt>cl::SetVersionPrinter</tt> function is designed to be called
Chris Lattner8b44b902008-01-09 19:28:50 +00001555directly from <tt>main</tt> and <i>before</i>
Reid Spencer2403b852006-06-05 17:30:16 +00001556<tt>cl::ParseCommandLineOptions</tt>. Its use is optional. It simply arranges
1557for a function to be called in response to the <tt>--version</tt> option instead
1558of having the <tt>CommandLine</tt> library print out the usual version string
1559for LLVM. This is useful for programs that are not part of LLVM but wish to use
1560the <tt>CommandLine</tt> facilities. Such programs should just define a small
1561function that takes no arguments and returns <tt>void</tt> and that prints out
1562whatever version information is appropriate for the program. Pass the address
1563of that function to <tt>cl::SetVersionPrinter</tt> to arrange for it to be
1564called when the <tt>--version</tt> option is given by the user.</p>
1565
1566</div>
1567<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +00001568<h4>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001569 <a name="cl::opt">The <tt>cl::opt</tt> class</a>
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +00001570</h4>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001571
NAKAMURA Takumif5af6ad2011-04-23 00:30:22 +00001572<div>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001573
1574<p>The <tt>cl::opt</tt> class is the class used to represent scalar command line
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001575options, and is the one used most of the time. It is a templated class which
1576can take up to three arguments (all except for the first have default values
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001577though):</p>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001578
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +00001579<div class="doc_code"><pre>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001580<b>namespace</b> cl {
1581 <b>template</b> &lt;<b>class</b> DataType, <b>bool</b> ExternalStorage = <b>false</b>,
1582 <b>class</b> ParserClass = parser&lt;DataType&gt; &gt;
1583 <b>class</b> opt;
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001584}
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +00001585</pre></div>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001586
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001587<p>The first template argument specifies what underlying data type the command
1588line argument is, and is used to select a default parser implementation. The
1589second template argument is used to specify whether the option should contain
1590the storage for the option (the default) or whether external storage should be
1591used to contain the value parsed for the option (see <a href="#storage">Internal
1592vs External Storage</a> for more information).</p>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001593
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001594<p>The third template argument specifies which parser to use. The default value
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001595selects an instantiation of the <tt>parser</tt> class based on the underlying
1596data type of the option. In general, this default works well for most
1597applications, so this option is only used when using a <a
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001598href="#customparser">custom parser</a>.</p>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001599
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001600</div>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001601
1602<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +00001603<h4>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001604 <a name="cl::list">The <tt>cl::list</tt> class</a>
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +00001605</h4>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001606
NAKAMURA Takumif5af6ad2011-04-23 00:30:22 +00001607<div>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001608
1609<p>The <tt>cl::list</tt> class is the class used to represent a list of command
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001610line options. It too is a templated class which can take up to three
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001611arguments:</p>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001612
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +00001613<div class="doc_code"><pre>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001614<b>namespace</b> cl {
1615 <b>template</b> &lt;<b>class</b> DataType, <b>class</b> Storage = <b>bool</b>,
1616 <b>class</b> ParserClass = parser&lt;DataType&gt; &gt;
1617 <b>class</b> list;
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001618}
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +00001619</pre></div>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001620
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001621<p>This class works the exact same as the <a
1622href="#cl::opt"><tt>cl::opt</tt></a> class, except that the second argument is
1623the <b>type</b> of the external storage, not a boolean value. For this class,
1624the marker type '<tt>bool</tt>' is used to indicate that internal storage should
1625be used.</p>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001626
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001627</div>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001628
1629<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +00001630<h4>
Jim Laskey1d8f6262005-08-25 22:52:43 +00001631 <a name="cl::bits">The <tt>cl::bits</tt> class</a>
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +00001632</h4>
Jim Laskey1d8f6262005-08-25 22:52:43 +00001633
NAKAMURA Takumif5af6ad2011-04-23 00:30:22 +00001634<div>
Jim Laskey1d8f6262005-08-25 22:52:43 +00001635
1636<p>The <tt>cl::bits</tt> class is the class used to represent a list of command
1637line options in the form of a bit vector. It is also a templated class which
1638can take up to three arguments:</p>
1639
1640<div class="doc_code"><pre>
1641<b>namespace</b> cl {
1642 <b>template</b> &lt;<b>class</b> DataType, <b>class</b> Storage = <b>bool</b>,
1643 <b>class</b> ParserClass = parser&lt;DataType&gt; &gt;
1644 <b>class</b> bits;
1645}
1646</pre></div>
1647
1648<p>This class works the exact same as the <a
1649href="#cl::opt"><tt>cl::lists</tt></a> class, except that the second argument
Jim Laskey22b7dfa2005-08-26 09:25:54 +00001650must be of <b>type</b> <tt>unsigned</tt> if external storage is used.</p>
Jim Laskey1d8f6262005-08-25 22:52:43 +00001651
1652</div>
1653
1654<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +00001655<h4>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001656 <a name="cl::alias">The <tt>cl::alias</tt> class</a>
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +00001657</h4>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001658
NAKAMURA Takumif5af6ad2011-04-23 00:30:22 +00001659<div>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001660
1661<p>The <tt>cl::alias</tt> class is a nontemplated class that is used to form
1662aliases for other arguments.</p>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001663
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +00001664<div class="doc_code"><pre>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001665<b>namespace</b> cl {
1666 <b>class</b> alias;
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001667}
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +00001668</pre></div>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001669
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001670<p>The <a href="#cl::aliasopt"><tt>cl::aliasopt</tt></a> attribute should be
1671used to specify which option this is an alias for. Alias arguments default to
1672being <a href="#cl::Hidden">Hidden</a>, and use the aliased options parser to do
1673the conversion from string to data.</p>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001674
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001675</div>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001676
Reid Spencer9bbba0912004-11-16 06:11:52 +00001677<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +00001678<h4>
Reid Spencer9bbba0912004-11-16 06:11:52 +00001679 <a name="cl::extrahelp">The <tt>cl::extrahelp</tt> class</a>
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +00001680</h4>
Reid Spencer9bbba0912004-11-16 06:11:52 +00001681
NAKAMURA Takumif5af6ad2011-04-23 00:30:22 +00001682<div>
Reid Spencer9bbba0912004-11-16 06:11:52 +00001683
1684<p>The <tt>cl::extrahelp</tt> class is a nontemplated class that allows extra
Duncan Sands7e7ae5a2010-02-18 14:08:13 +00001685help text to be printed out for the <tt>-help</tt> option.</p>
Reid Spencer9bbba0912004-11-16 06:11:52 +00001686
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +00001687<div class="doc_code"><pre>
Reid Spencer9bbba0912004-11-16 06:11:52 +00001688<b>namespace</b> cl {
1689 <b>struct</b> extrahelp;
1690}
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +00001691</pre></div>
Reid Spencer9bbba0912004-11-16 06:11:52 +00001692
Anton Korobeynikov45982a52008-02-20 12:38:31 +00001693<p>To use the extrahelp, simply construct one with a <tt>const char*</tt>
Reid Spencer9bbba0912004-11-16 06:11:52 +00001694parameter to the constructor. The text passed to the constructor will be printed
1695at the bottom of the help message, verbatim. Note that multiple
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +00001696<tt>cl::extrahelp</tt> <b>can</b> be used, but this practice is discouraged. If
Reid Spencer9bbba0912004-11-16 06:11:52 +00001697your tool needs to print additional help information, put all that help into a
1698single <tt>cl::extrahelp</tt> instance.</p>
1699<p>For example:</p>
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +00001700<div class="doc_code"><pre>
Reid Spencer9bbba0912004-11-16 06:11:52 +00001701 cl::extrahelp("\nADDITIONAL HELP:\n\n This is the extra help\n");
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +00001702</pre></div>
Reid Spencer9bbba0912004-11-16 06:11:52 +00001703</div>
1704
NAKAMURA Takumif5af6ad2011-04-23 00:30:22 +00001705</div>
1706
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001707<!-- ======================================================================= -->
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +00001708<h3>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001709 <a name="builtinparsers">Builtin parsers</a>
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +00001710</h3>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001711
NAKAMURA Takumif5af6ad2011-04-23 00:30:22 +00001712<div>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001713
1714<p>Parsers control how the string value taken from the command line is
1715translated into a typed value, suitable for use in a C++ program. By default,
1716the CommandLine library uses an instance of <tt>parser&lt;type&gt;</tt> if the
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001717command line option specifies that it uses values of type '<tt>type</tt>'.
1718Because of this, custom option processing is specified with specializations of
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001719the '<tt>parser</tt>' class.</p>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001720
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001721<p>The CommandLine library provides the following builtin parser
1722specializations, which are sufficient for most applications. It can, however,
1723also be extended to work with new data types and new ways of interpreting the
1724same data. See the <a href="#customparser">Writing a Custom Parser</a> for more
1725details on this type of library extension.</p>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001726
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001727<ul>
1728
1729<li><a name="genericparser">The <b>generic <tt>parser&lt;t&gt;</tt> parser</b></a>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001730can be used to map strings values to any data type, through the use of the <a
1731href="#cl::values">cl::values</a> property, which specifies the mapping
1732information. The most common use of this parser is for parsing enum values,
1733which allows you to use the CommandLine library for all of the error checking to
1734make sure that only valid enum values are specified (as opposed to accepting
1735arbitrary strings). Despite this, however, the generic parser class can be used
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001736for any data type.</li>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001737
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001738<li><a name="boolparser">The <b><tt>parser&lt;bool&gt;</tt> specialization</b></a>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001739is used to convert boolean strings to a boolean value. Currently accepted
1740strings are "<tt>true</tt>", "<tt>TRUE</tt>", "<tt>True</tt>", "<tt>1</tt>",
Chris Lattner00a7b522009-04-08 03:43:51 +00001741"<tt>false</tt>", "<tt>FALSE</tt>", "<tt>False</tt>", and "<tt>0</tt>".</li>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001742
Dale Johannesen0f2c8fc2007-05-22 18:32:34 +00001743<li><a name="boolOrDefaultparser">The <b><tt>parser&lt;boolOrDefault&gt;</tt>
1744 specialization</b></a> is used for cases where the value is boolean,
1745but we also need to know whether the option was specified at all. boolOrDefault
1746is an enum with 3 values, BOU_UNSET, BOU_TRUE and BOU_FALSE. This parser accepts
1747the same strings as <b><tt>parser&lt;bool&gt;</tt></b>.</li>
1748
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001749<li><a name="stringparser">The <b><tt>parser&lt;string&gt;</tt>
1750specialization</b></a> simply stores the parsed string into the string value
1751specified. No conversion or modification of the data is performed.</li>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001752
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001753<li><a name="intparser">The <b><tt>parser&lt;int&gt;</tt> specialization</b></a>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001754uses the C <tt>strtol</tt> function to parse the string input. As such, it will
1755accept a decimal number (with an optional '+' or '-' prefix) which must start
1756with a non-zero digit. It accepts octal numbers, which are identified with a
1757'<tt>0</tt>' prefix digit, and hexadecimal numbers with a prefix of
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001758'<tt>0x</tt>' or '<tt>0X</tt>'.</li>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001759
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001760<li><a name="doubleparser">The <b><tt>parser&lt;double&gt;</tt></b></a> and
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001761<b><tt>parser&lt;float&gt;</tt> specializations</b> use the standard C
1762<tt>strtod</tt> function to convert floating point strings into floating point
1763values. As such, a broad range of string formats is supported, including
1764exponential notation (ex: <tt>1.7e15</tt>) and properly supports locales.
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001765</li>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001766
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001767</ul>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +00001768
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001769</div>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +00001770
NAKAMURA Takumif5af6ad2011-04-23 00:30:22 +00001771</div>
1772
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +00001773<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +00001774<h2>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001775 <a name="extensionguide">Extension Guide</a>
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +00001776</h2>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +00001777<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1778
NAKAMURA Takumif5af6ad2011-04-23 00:30:22 +00001779<div>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001780
1781<p>Although the CommandLine library has a lot of functionality built into it
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001782already (as discussed previously), one of its true strengths lie in its
1783extensibility. This section discusses how the CommandLine library works under
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001784the covers and illustrates how to do some simple, common, extensions.</p>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001785
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001786<!-- ======================================================================= -->
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +00001787<h3>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001788 <a name="customparser">Writing a custom parser</a>
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +00001789</h3>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001790
NAKAMURA Takumif5af6ad2011-04-23 00:30:22 +00001791<div>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001792
1793<p>One of the simplest and most common extensions is the use of a custom parser.
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001794As <a href="#builtinparsers">discussed previously</a>, parsers are the portion
1795of the CommandLine library that turns string input from the user into a
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001796particular parsed data type, validating the input in the process.</p>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001797
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001798<p>There are two ways to use a new parser:</p>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001799
1800<ol>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001801
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001802<li>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001803
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001804<p>Specialize the <a href="#genericparser"><tt>cl::parser</tt></a> template for
1805your custom data type.<p>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001806
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001807<p>This approach has the advantage that users of your custom data type will
1808automatically use your custom parser whenever they define an option with a value
1809type of your data type. The disadvantage of this approach is that it doesn't
Jim Laskeyf55914a2006-07-31 20:18:49 +00001810work if your fundamental data type is something that is already supported.</p>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001811
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001812</li>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001813
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001814<li>
1815
1816<p>Write an independent class, using it explicitly from options that need
1817it.</p>
1818
1819<p>This approach works well in situations where you would line to parse an
1820option using special syntax for a not-very-special data-type. The drawback of
1821this approach is that users of your parser have to be aware that they are using
Chris Lattner8b44b902008-01-09 19:28:50 +00001822your parser instead of the builtin ones.</p>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001823
1824</li>
1825
1826</ol>
1827
1828<p>To guide the discussion, we will discuss a custom parser that accepts file
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001829sizes, specified with an optional unit after the numeric size. For example, we
1830would like to parse "102kb", "41M", "1G" into the appropriate integer value. In
1831this case, the underlying data type we want to parse into is
1832'<tt>unsigned</tt>'. We choose approach #2 above because we don't want to make
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001833this the default for all <tt>unsigned</tt> options.</p>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001834
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001835<p>To start out, we declare our new <tt>FileSizeParser</tt> class:</p>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001836
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +00001837<div class="doc_code"><pre>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001838<b>struct</b> FileSizeParser : <b>public</b> cl::basic_parser&lt;<b>unsigned</b>&gt; {
1839 <i>// parse - Return true on error.</i>
1840 <b>bool</b> parse(cl::Option &amp;O, <b>const char</b> *ArgName, <b>const</b> std::string &amp;ArgValue,
1841 <b>unsigned</b> &amp;Val);
1842};
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +00001843</pre></div>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001844
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001845<p>Our new class inherits from the <tt>cl::basic_parser</tt> template class to
Chris Lattner8b44b902008-01-09 19:28:50 +00001846fill in the default, boiler plate code for us. We give it the data type that
1847we parse into, the last argument to the <tt>parse</tt> method, so that clients of
1848our custom parser know what object type to pass in to the parse method. (Here we
1849declare that we parse into '<tt>unsigned</tt>' variables.)</p>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001850
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001851<p>For most purposes, the only method that must be implemented in a custom
1852parser is the <tt>parse</tt> method. The <tt>parse</tt> method is called
1853whenever the option is invoked, passing in the option itself, the option name,
1854the string to parse, and a reference to a return value. If the string to parse
Chris Lattner8b44b902008-01-09 19:28:50 +00001855is not well-formed, the parser should output an error message and return true.
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001856Otherwise it should return false and set '<tt>Val</tt>' to the parsed value. In
1857our example, we implement <tt>parse</tt> as:</p>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001858
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +00001859<div class="doc_code"><pre>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001860<b>bool</b> FileSizeParser::parse(cl::Option &amp;O, <b>const char</b> *ArgName,
1861 <b>const</b> std::string &amp;Arg, <b>unsigned</b> &amp;Val) {
1862 <b>const char</b> *ArgStart = Arg.c_str();
1863 <b>char</b> *End;
Anton Korobeynikov45982a52008-02-20 12:38:31 +00001864
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001865 <i>// Parse integer part, leaving 'End' pointing to the first non-integer char</i>
1866 Val = (unsigned)strtol(ArgStart, &amp;End, 0);
1867
1868 <b>while</b> (1) {
1869 <b>switch</b> (*End++) {
Chris Lattnerce5fcc32005-08-22 16:24:25 +00001870 <b>case</b> 0: <b>return</b> false; <i>// No error</i>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001871 <b>case</b> 'i': <i>// Ignore the 'i' in KiB if people use that</i>
1872 <b>case</b> 'b': <b>case</b> 'B': <i>// Ignore B suffix</i>
1873 <b>break</b>;
1874
1875 <b>case</b> 'g': <b>case</b> 'G': Val *= 1024*1024*1024; <b>break</b>;
1876 <b>case</b> 'm': <b>case</b> 'M': Val *= 1024*1024; <b>break</b>;
1877 <b>case</b> 'k': <b>case</b> 'K': Val *= 1024; <b>break</b>;
1878
1879 default:
1880 <i>// Print an error message if unrecognized character!</i>
Benjamin Kramere6864c12009-08-02 12:13:02 +00001881 <b>return</b> O.error("'" + Arg + "' value invalid for file size argument!");
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001882 }
1883 }
1884}
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +00001885</pre></div>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001886
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001887<p>This function implements a very simple parser for the kinds of strings we are
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001888interested in. Although it has some holes (it allows "<tt>123KKK</tt>" for
1889example), it is good enough for this example. Note that we use the option
1890itself to print out the error message (the <tt>error</tt> method always returns
1891true) in order to get a nice error message (shown below). Now that we have our
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001892parser class, we can use it like this:</p>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001893
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +00001894<div class="doc_code"><pre>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001895<b>static</b> <a href="#cl::opt">cl::opt</a>&lt;<b>unsigned</b>, <b>false</b>, FileSizeParser&gt;
1896MFS(<i>"max-file-size"</i>, <a href="#cl::desc">cl::desc</a>(<i>"Maximum file size to accept"</i>),
1897 <a href="#cl::value_desc">cl::value_desc</a>("<i>size</i>"));
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +00001898</pre></div>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001899
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001900<p>Which adds this to the output of our program:</p>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001901
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +00001902<div class="doc_code"><pre>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001903OPTIONS:
Duncan Sands7e7ae5a2010-02-18 14:08:13 +00001904 -help - display available options (-help-hidden for more)
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001905 ...
1906 <b>-max-file-size=&lt;size&gt; - Maximum file size to accept</b>
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +00001907</pre></div>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001908
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001909<p>And we can test that our parse works correctly now (the test program just
1910prints out the max-file-size argument value):</p>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001911
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +00001912<div class="doc_code"><pre>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001913$ ./test
1914MFS: 0
1915$ ./test -max-file-size=123MB
1916MFS: 128974848
1917$ ./test -max-file-size=3G
1918MFS: 3221225472
1919$ ./test -max-file-size=dog
1920-max-file-size option: 'dog' value invalid for file size argument!
Misha Brukmanf75c4b42005-03-11 00:00:33 +00001921</pre></div>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001922
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001923<p>It looks like it works. The error message that we get is nice and helpful,
1924and we seem to accept reasonable file sizes. This wraps up the "custom parser"
1925tutorial.</p>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001926
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001927</div>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001928
1929<!-- ======================================================================= -->
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +00001930<h3>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001931 <a name="explotingexternal">Exploiting external storage</a>
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +00001932</h3>
Chris Lattnerc1ae40c2002-08-07 18:27:04 +00001933
NAKAMURA Takumif5af6ad2011-04-23 00:30:22 +00001934<div>
Reid Spencerb993feb2004-08-30 05:56:51 +00001935 <p>Several of the LLVM libraries define static <tt>cl::opt</tt> instances that
1936 will automatically be included in any program that links with that library.
1937 This is a feature. However, sometimes it is necessary to know the value of the
1938 command line option outside of the library. In these cases the library does or
1939 should provide an external storage location that is accessible to users of the
1940 library. Examples of this include the <tt>llvm::DebugFlag</tt> exported by the
1941 <tt>lib/Support/Debug.cpp</tt> file and the <tt>llvm::TimePassesIsEnabled</tt>
1942 flag exported by the <tt>lib/VMCore/Pass.cpp</tt> file.</p>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001943
Reid Spencerb993feb2004-08-30 05:56:51 +00001944<p>TODO: complete this section</p>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001945
1946</div>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001947
1948<!-- ======================================================================= -->
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +00001949<h3>
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001950 <a name="dynamicopts">Dynamically adding command line options</a>
NAKAMURA Takumi05d02652011-04-18 23:59:50 +00001951</h3>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001952
NAKAMURA Takumif5af6ad2011-04-23 00:30:22 +00001953<div>
Chris Lattnere76d4ab2002-08-06 19:36:06 +00001954
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001955<p>TODO: fill in this section</p>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +00001956
Misha Brukman9718e962003-10-24 19:59:21 +00001957</div>
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +00001958
NAKAMURA Takumif5af6ad2011-04-23 00:30:22 +00001959</div>
1960
Chris Lattner209c7f42001-07-23 23:03:12 +00001961<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1962
1963<hr>
Misha Brukmanc53aefb2004-05-12 18:42:35 +00001964<address>
1965 <a href="http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/check/referer"><img
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Misha Brukmanc53aefb2004-05-12 18:42:35 +00001967 <a href="http://validator.w3.org/check/referer"><img
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Misha Brukmanc53aefb2004-05-12 18:42:35 +00001969
1970 <a href="mailto:sabre@nondot.org">Chris Lattner</a><br>
NAKAMURA Takumib9a33632011-04-09 02:13:37 +00001971 <a href="http://llvm.org/">LLVM Compiler Infrastructure</a><br>
Misha Brukman3c299112003-11-07 18:11:14 +00001972 Last modified: $Date$
Misha Brukmanc53aefb2004-05-12 18:42:35 +00001973</address>
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1975</body>
1976</html>