better docs for wxCmdLineParser (fixes a few typos, adds more comments)
[wxWidgets.git] / interface / wx / cmdline.h
1 /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
2 // Name: cmdline.h
3 // Purpose: interface of wxCmdLineParser
4 // Author: wxWidgets team
5 // RCS-ID: $Id$
6 // Licence: wxWindows license
7 /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
8
9 /**
10 wxCmdLineEntryDesc::flags field is a combination of these bit masks.
11
12 Notice that by default (i.e. if flags are just 0), options are optional
13 (sic) and each call to wxCmdLineParser::AddParam() allows one more
14 parameter - this may be changed by giving non-default flags to it, i.e. use
15 @c wxCMD_LINE_OPTION_MANDATORY to require that the option is given and
16 @c wxCMD_LINE_PARAM_OPTIONAL to make a parameter optional.
17
18 Also, @c wxCMD_LINE_PARAM_MULTIPLE may be specified if the programs accepts a
19 variable number of parameters - but it only can be given for the last
20 parameter in the command line description. If you use this flag, you will
21 probably need to use wxCmdLineEntryDesc::GetParamCount() to retrieve the
22 number of parameters effectively specified after calling
23 wxCmdLineEntryDesc::Parse().
24
25 @c wxCMD_LINE_NEEDS_SEPARATOR can be specified to require a separator (either
26 a colon, an equal sign or white space) between the option name and its
27 value. By default, no separator is required.
28 */
29 enum wxCmdLineEntryFlags
30 {
31 wxCMD_LINE_OPTION_MANDATORY = 0x01, ///< This option must be given.
32 wxCMD_LINE_PARAM_OPTIONAL = 0x02, ///< The parameter may be omitted.
33 wxCMD_LINE_PARAM_MULTIPLE = 0x04, ///< The parameter may be repeated.
34 wxCMD_LINE_OPTION_HELP = 0x08, ///< This option is a help request.
35 wxCMD_LINE_NEEDS_SEPARATOR = 0x10 ///< Must have a separator before the value.
36 };
37
38 /**
39 The possible values of wxCmdLineEntryDesc::type which specify the type of
40 the value accepted by an option.
41 */
42 enum wxCmdLineParamType
43 {
44 wxCMD_LINE_VAL_STRING,
45 wxCMD_LINE_VAL_NUMBER,
46 wxCMD_LINE_VAL_DATE,
47 wxCMD_LINE_VAL_DOUBLE,
48 wxCMD_LINE_VAL_NONE
49 };
50
51 /**
52 The type of a command line entity used for wxCmdLineEntryDesc::kind.
53 */
54 enum wxCmdLineEntryType
55 {
56 /// A boolean argument of the program; e.g. @c -v to enable verbose mode.
57 wxCMD_LINE_SWITCH,
58
59 /// An argument with an associated value; e.g. @c "-o filename" to specify
60 /// an optional output filename.
61 wxCMD_LINE_OPTION,
62
63 /// A parameter: a required program argument.
64 wxCMD_LINE_PARAM,
65
66 /// Additional usage text. See wxCmdLineParser::AddUsageText.
67 wxCMD_LINE_USAGE_TEXT,
68
69 wxCMD_LINE_NONE ///< Use this to terminate the list.
70 };
71
72 /**
73 Flags determining wxCmdLineParser::ConvertStringToArgs() behaviour.
74 */
75 enum wxCmdLineSplitType
76 {
77 wxCMD_LINE_SPLIT_DOS,
78 wxCMD_LINE_SPLIT_UNIX
79 };
80
81 /**
82 The structure wxCmdLineEntryDesc is used to describe a command line
83 switch, option or parameter. An array of such structures should be passed
84 to wxCmdLineParser::SetDesc().
85
86 Note that the meanings of parameters of the wxCmdLineParser::AddXXX() functions
87 are the same as of the corresponding fields in this structure.
88 */
89 struct wxCmdLineEntryDesc
90 {
91 /**
92 The kind of this program argument.
93 See ::wxCmdLineEntryType for more info.
94 */
95 wxCmdLineEntryType kind;
96
97 /**
98 The usual, short, name of the switch or the option.
99
100 It may contain only letters, digits and the underscores.
101 This field is unused if <tt>kind == wxCMD_LINE_PARAM</tt>.
102 */
103 const char *shortName;
104
105 /**
106 The long name for this program argument (may be empty if the option
107 has no long name).
108
109 It may contain only letters, digits and the underscores.
110 This field is unused if <tt>kind == wxCMD_LINE_PARAM</tt>.
111 */
112 const char *longName;
113
114 /**
115 This description is used by the wxCmdLineParser::Usage() method to
116 construct a help message explaining the syntax of the program.
117 */
118 const char *description;
119
120 /**
121 The type associated with this option (ignored if <tt>kind != wxCMD_LINE_OPTION</tt>).
122 See ::wxCmdLineParamType for more info.
123 */
124 wxCmdLineParamType type;
125
126 /**
127 A combination of one or more ::wxCmdLineEntryFlags enum values.
128 */
129 int flags;
130 };
131
132 /**
133 @class wxCmdLineParser
134
135 wxCmdLineParser is a class for parsing the command line.
136
137 It has the following features:
138
139 - distinguishes options, switches and parameters
140 - allows option grouping
141 - allows both short and long options
142 - automatically generates the usage message from the command line description
143 - checks types of the options values (number, date, ...).
144
145 To use it you should follow these steps:
146
147 -# @ref cmdlineparser_construction "Construct" an object of this class
148 giving it the command line to parse and optionally its description or
149 use the @c AddXXX() functions later.
150 -# Call Parse().
151 -# Use Found() to retrieve the results.
152
153 You can also use wxApp's default command line processing just overriding
154 wxAppConsole::OnInitCmdLine() and wxAppConsole::OnCmdLineParsed().
155
156 In the documentation below the following terminology is used:
157
158 - @b switch: a boolean option which can be given or not, but which doesn't have
159 any value. We use the word @e switch to distinguish
160 such boolean options from more generic options like those
161 described below. For example, @c "-v" might be a switch
162 meaning "enable verbose mode".
163 - @b option: a switch with a value associated to it.
164 For example, @c "-o filename" might be an
165 option for specifying the name of the output file.
166 - @b parameter: a required program argument.
167
168
169 @section cmdlineparser_construction Construction
170
171 Before Parse() can be called, the command line parser object must have the
172 command line to parse and also the rules saying which switches, options and
173 parameters are valid - this is called command line description in what
174 follows.
175
176 You have complete freedom of choice as to when specify the required
177 information, the only restriction is that it must be done before calling
178 Parse().
179
180 To specify the command line to parse you may use either one of constructors
181 accepting it (wxCmdLineParser(int, char**) or
182 wxCmdLineParser(const wxString&) usually) or, if you use the default
183 constructor, you can do it later by calling SetCmdLine().
184
185 The same holds for command line description: it can be specified either in
186 the constructor (with or without the command line itself) or constructed
187 later using either SetDesc() or combination of AddSwitch(), AddOption(),
188 AddParam() and AddUsageText() methods.
189
190 Using constructors or SetDesc() uses a (usually const static) table
191 containing the command line description. If you want to decide which
192 options to accept during the run-time, using one of the AddXXX() functions
193 above might be preferable.
194
195
196 @section cmdlineparser_customization Customization
197
198 wxCmdLineParser has several global options which may be changed by the
199 application. All of the functions described in this section should be
200 called before Parse().
201
202 First global option is the support for long (also known as GNU-style)
203 options. The long options are the ones which start with two dashes and look
204 like "--verbose", i.e. they generally are complete words and not some
205 abbreviations of them. As long options are used by more and more
206 applications, they are enabled by default, but may be disabled with
207 DisableLongOptions().
208
209 Another global option is the set of characters which may be used to start
210 an option (otherwise, the word on the command line is assumed to be a
211 parameter). Under Unix, @c "-" is always used, but Windows has at least two
212 common choices for this: @c "-" and @c "/". Some programs also use "+". The
213 default is to use what suits most the current platform, but may be changed
214 with SetSwitchChars() method.
215
216 Finally, SetLogo() can be used to show some application-specific text
217 before the explanation given by Usage() function.
218
219
220 @section cmdlineparser_parsing Parsing the Command Line
221
222 After the command line description was constructed and the desired options
223 were set, you can finally call Parse() method. It returns 0 if the command
224 line was correct and was parsed, -1 if the help option was specified (this
225 is a separate case as, normally, the program will terminate after this) or
226 a positive number if there was an error during the command line parsing.
227
228 In the latter case, the appropriate error message and usage information are
229 logged by wxCmdLineParser itself using the standard wxWidgets logging
230 functions.
231
232
233 @section cmdlineparser_results Getting Results
234
235 After calling Parse() (and if it returned 0), you may access the results of
236 parsing using one of overloaded Found() methods.
237
238 For a simple switch, you will simply call Found to determine if the switch
239 was given or not, for an option or a parameter, you will call a version of
240 Found() which also returns the associated value in the provided variable.
241 All Found() functions return true if the switch or option were found in the
242 command line or false if they were not specified.
243
244
245 @library{wxbase}
246 @category{appmanagement}
247
248 @see wxApp::argc, wxApp::argv, @ref page_samples_console
249 */
250 class wxCmdLineParser
251 {
252 public:
253 /**
254 Default constructor, you must use SetCmdLine() later.
255 */
256 wxCmdLineParser();
257
258 /**
259 Constructor which specifies the command line to parse. This is the
260 traditional (Unix) command line format. The parameters @a argc and
261 @a argv have the same meaning as the typical @c main() function.
262
263 This constructor is available in both ANSI and Unicode modes because under
264 some platforms the command line arguments are passed as ASCII strings
265 even to Unicode programs.
266 */
267 wxCmdLineParser(int argc, char** argv);
268
269 /**
270 Constructor which specifies the command line to parse.
271 This is the traditional (Unix) command line format.
272
273 The parameters @a argc and @a argv have the same meaning as the typical
274 @c main() function.
275
276 This constructor is only available in Unicode build.
277 */
278 wxCmdLineParser(int argc, wchar_t** argv);
279
280 /**
281 Constructor which specify the command line to parse in Windows format.
282 The parameter cmdline has the same meaning as the corresponding
283 parameter of @c WinMain().
284 */
285 wxCmdLineParser(const wxString& cmdline);
286
287 /**
288 Specifies the @ref SetDesc() "command line description" but not the
289 command line. You must use SetCmdLine() later.
290 */
291 wxCmdLineParser(const wxCmdLineEntryDesc* desc);
292
293 /**
294 Specifies both the command line (in Unix format) and the
295 @ref SetDesc() "command line description".
296 */
297 wxCmdLineParser(const wxCmdLineEntryDesc* desc, int argc, char** argv);
298
299 /**
300 Specifies both the command line (in Windows format) and the
301 @ref SetDesc() "command line description".
302 */
303 wxCmdLineParser(const wxCmdLineEntryDesc* desc,
304 const wxString& cmdline);
305
306 /**
307 Frees resources allocated by the object.
308
309 @note This destructor is not virtual, don't use this class
310 polymorphically.
311 */
312 ~wxCmdLineParser();
313
314 /**
315 Add an option @a name with an optional long name @a lng (no long name
316 if it is empty, which is default) taking a value of the given type
317 (string by default) to the command line description.
318 */
319 void AddOption(const wxString& name,
320 const wxString& lng = wxEmptyString,
321 const wxString& desc = wxEmptyString,
322 wxCmdLineParamType type = wxCMD_LINE_VAL_STRING,
323 int flags = 0);
324
325 /**
326 Add a parameter of the given @a type to the command line description.
327 */
328 void AddParam(const wxString& desc = wxEmptyString,
329 wxCmdLineParamType type = wxCMD_LINE_VAL_STRING,
330 int flags = 0);
331
332 /**
333 Add a switch @a name with an optional long name @a lng (no long name if
334 it is empty, which is default), description @a desc and flags @a flags
335 to the command line description.
336 */
337 void AddSwitch(const wxString& name,
338 const wxString& lng = wxEmptyString,
339 const wxString& desc = wxEmptyString,
340 int flags = 0);
341
342 /**
343 Add a string @a text to the command line description shown by Usage().
344
345 @since 2.9.0
346 */
347 void AddUsageText(const wxString& text);
348
349 /**
350 Returns @true if long options are enabled, otherwise @false.
351
352 @see EnableLongOptions()
353 */
354 bool AreLongOptionsEnabled() const;
355
356 /**
357 Breaks down the string containing the full command line in words.
358
359 Words are separated by whitespace and double quotes can be used to
360 preserve the spaces inside the words.
361
362 By default, this function uses Windows-like word splitting algorithm,
363 i.e. single quotes have no special meaning and backslash can't be used
364 to escape spaces neither. With @c wxCMD_LINE_SPLIT_UNIX flag Unix
365 semantics is used, i.e. both single and double quotes can be used and
366 backslash can be used to escape all the other special characters.
367 */
368 static wxArrayString
369 ConvertStringToArgs(const wxString& cmdline,
370 wxCmdLineSplitType flags = wxCMD_LINE_SPLIT_DOS);
371
372 /**
373 Identical to EnableLongOptions(@false).
374 */
375 void DisableLongOptions();
376
377 /**
378 Enable or disable support for the long options.
379
380 As long options are not (yet) POSIX-compliant, this option allows to
381 disable them.
382
383 @see @ref cmdlineparser_customization and AreLongOptionsEnabled()
384 */
385 void EnableLongOptions(bool enable = true);
386
387 /**
388 Returns @true if the given switch was found, @false otherwise.
389 */
390 bool Found(const wxString& name) const;
391
392 /**
393 Returns true if an option taking a string value was found and stores
394 the value in the provided pointer (which should not be @NULL).
395 */
396 bool Found(const wxString& name, wxString* value) const;
397
398 /**
399 Returns @true if an option taking an integer value was found and stores
400 the value in the provided pointer (which should not be @NULL).
401 */
402 bool Found(const wxString& name, long* value) const;
403
404 /**
405 Returns @true if an option taking a float value was found and stores
406 the value in the provided pointer (which should not be @NULL).
407 */
408 bool Found(const wxString& name, double* value) const;
409
410 /**
411 Returns @true if an option taking a date value was found and stores the
412 value in the provided pointer (which should not be @NULL).
413 */
414 bool Found(const wxString& name, wxDateTime* value) const;
415
416 /**
417 Returns the value of Nth parameter (as string only).
418 */
419 wxString GetParam(size_t n = 0) const;
420
421 /**
422 Returns the number of parameters found. This function makes sense
423 mostly if you had used @c wxCMD_LINE_PARAM_MULTIPLE flag.
424 */
425 size_t GetParamCount() const;
426
427 /**
428 Parse the command line, return 0 if ok, -1 if @c "-h" or @c "--help"
429 option was encountered and the help message was given or a positive
430 value if a syntax error occurred.
431
432 @param giveUsage
433 If @true (default), the usage message is given if a syntax error
434 was encountered while parsing the command line or if help was
435 requested. If @false, only error messages about possible syntax
436 errors are given, use Usage to show the usage message from the
437 caller if needed.
438 */
439 int Parse(bool giveUsage = true);
440
441 //@{
442 /**
443 Set the command line to parse after using one of the constructors which
444 don't do it.
445 */
446 void SetCmdLine(int argc, char** argv);
447 void SetCmdLine(int argc, wchar_t** argv);
448 void SetCmdLine(const wxString& cmdline);
449 //@}
450
451 /**
452 Constructs the command line description.
453
454 Take the command line description from the wxCMD_LINE_NONE terminated
455 table.
456
457 Example of usage:
458
459 @code
460 static const wxCmdLineEntryDesc cmdLineDesc[] =
461 {
462 { wxCMD_LINE_SWITCH, "v", "verbose", "be verbose" },
463 { wxCMD_LINE_SWITCH, "q", "quiet", "be quiet" },
464
465 { wxCMD_LINE_OPTION, "o", "output", "output file" },
466 { wxCMD_LINE_OPTION, "i", "input", "input dir" },
467 { wxCMD_LINE_OPTION, "s", "size", "output block size", wxCMD_LINE_VAL_NUMBER },
468 { wxCMD_LINE_OPTION, "d", "date", "output file date", wxCMD_LINE_VAL_DATE },
469
470 { wxCMD_LINE_PARAM, NULL, NULL, "input file", wxCMD_LINE_VAL_STRING, wxCMD_LINE_PARAM_MULTIPLE },
471
472 { wxCMD_LINE_NONE }
473 };
474
475 wxCmdLineParser parser;
476
477 parser.SetDesc(cmdLineDesc);
478 @endcode
479 */
480 void SetDesc(const wxCmdLineEntryDesc* desc);
481
482 /**
483 The @a logo is some extra text which will be shown by Usage() method.
484 */
485 void SetLogo(const wxString& logo);
486
487 /**
488 @a switchChars contains all characters with which an option or switch
489 may start. Default is @c "-" for Unix, @c "-/" for Windows.
490 */
491 void SetSwitchChars(const wxString& switchChars);
492
493 /**
494 Give the standard usage message describing all program options. It will
495 use the options and parameters descriptions specified earlier, so the
496 resulting message will not be helpful to the user unless the
497 descriptions were indeed specified.
498
499 @see SetLogo()
500 */
501 void Usage() const;
502
503 /**
504 Return the string containing the program usage description.
505
506 Call Usage() to directly show this string to the user.
507 */
508 wxString GetUsageString() const;
509 };
510