hdr-Command_line_flag_syntax in Go
The following forms are permitted:
// These examples demonstrate more intricate uses of the flag package.
package main
import (
"errors"
"flag"
"fmt"
"strings"
"time"
)
// Example 1: A single string flag called "species" with default value "gopher".
var species = flag.String("species", "gopher", "the species we are studying")
// Example 2: Two flags sharing a variable, so we can have a shorthand.
// The order of initialization is undefined, so make sure both use the
// same default value. They must be set up with an init function.
var gopherType string
func init() {
const (
defaultGopher = "pocket"
usage = "the variety of gopher"
)
flag.StringVar(&gopherType, "gopher_type", defaultGopher, usage)
flag.StringVar(&gopherType, "g", defaultGopher, usage+" (shorthand)")
}
// Example 3: A user-defined flag type, a slice of durations.
type interval []time.Duration
// String is the method to format the flag's value, part of the flag.Value interface.
// The String method's output will be used in diagnostics.
func (i *interval) String() string {
return fmt.Sprint(*i)
}
// Set is the method to set the flag value, part of the flag.Value interface.
// Set's argument is a string to be parsed to set the flag.
// It's a comma-separated list, so we split it.
func (i *interval) Set(value string) error {
// If we wanted to allow the flag to be set multiple times,
// accumulating values, we would delete this if statement.
// That would permit usages such as
// -deltaT 10s -deltaT 15s
// and other combinations.
if len(*i) > 0 {
return errors.New("interval flag already set")
}
for _, dt := range strings.Split(value, ",") {
duration, err := time.ParseDuration(dt)
if err != nil {
return err
}
*i = append(*i, duration)
}
return nil
}
// Define a flag to accumulate durations. Because it has a special type,
// we need to use the Var function and therefore create the flag during
// init.
var intervalFlag interval
func init() {
// Tie the command-line flag to the intervalFlag variable and
// set a usage message.
flag.Var(&intervalFlag, "deltaT", "comma-separated list of intervals to use between events")
}
func main() {
// All the interesting pieces are with the variables declared above, but
// to enable the flag package to see the flags defined there, one must
// execute, typically at the start of main (not init!):
// flag.Parse()
// We don't run it here because this is not a main function and
// the testing suite has already parsed the flags.
}