Parse Subcommand Flags in Go
The flag package lets us easily define simple subcommands that have their own flags.
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)
}
}