Parse Subcommand Flags in Go

Posted by yhuang
Public (Editable by Users)

The flag package lets us easily define simple subcommands that have their own flags.

Go
Edit
package main

import (
    "flag"
    "fmt"
    "os"
)

func main() {

    // We declare a subcommand using the NewFlagSet function,
    // and proceed to define new flags specific for this subcommand.
    fooCmd := flag.NewFlagSet("foo", flag.ExitOnError)
    fooEnable := fooCmd.Bool("enable", false, "enable")
    fooName := fooCmd.String("name", "", "name")

    // For a different subcommand we can define different supported flags.
    barCmd := flag.NewFlagSet("bar", flag.ExitOnError)
    barLevel := barCmd.Int("level", 0, "level")

    if len(os.Args) < 2 {
        fmt.Println("expected 'foo' or 'bar' subcommands")
        os.Exit(1)
    }

    switch os.Args[1] {

    // For every subcommand, we parse its own flags and have access to trailing positional arguments.
    case "foo":
        fooCmd.Parse(os.Args[2:])
        fmt.Println("subcommand 'foo'")
        fmt.Println("  enable:", *fooEnable)
        fmt.Println("  name:", *fooName)
        fmt.Println("  tail:", fooCmd.Args())
    case "bar":
        barCmd.Parse(os.Args[2:])
        fmt.Println("subcommand 'bar'")
        fmt.Println("  level:", *barLevel)
        fmt.Println("  tail:", barCmd.Args())
    default:
        fmt.Println("expected 'foo' or 'bar' subcommands")
        os.Exit(1)
    }
}