Utility library for simplifying using of Boost::program_options where user can concentrate not on options/arguments configuration but on usage of them.

So, just describe the options and use them after parsing the arguments:

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
    nlab::Option<bool> write{"write,w", "write flag"};
    nlab::Option<std::string> file{"file,f", "file path and name"};
    if (nlab::ProgArgManager(argc, argv).parse(write, file))
    {
        // Entry point for user business logic
        std::cout << "write: " << write.value << "\n";
        std::cout << "file: " << file.value << "\n";
    }
    return 1;
}

Build Status

Dependencies

• Boost::program_options
• GTest (for unit tests build only)

How it works

All options are devided to three categories:

1. Generic: hardcoded help and version options.
2. Optional: user defined.
3. Mandatory: user defined.

The following diagram shows the arguments handling logic:

Usage

This project contains a simple example of how to use the library that covers the basic cases of options/arguments usage.

Example source code: test/component_test/main.cpp

How to build example

$ mkdir build && cd build
$ cmake -Dprog-arg-manager_BUILD_TESTS=on ..
$ make

Executable binary prog-arg-manager-ctest is here:

$ cd build/test/component_test

How to run example

Run example without all mandatory options or with “-h [ —help ]”, help text should be shown:

$ ./prog-arg-manager-ctest -h
Allowed options:
Generic:
  -h [ --help ]          display this help text and exit
  -v [ --version ]       display version information and exit
Optional:
  --num arg              to test numeric arguments
  -r [ --read ]          read flag to test boolean
  -w [ --write ]         write flag to test boolean
  -d [ --delete ]        delete flag to test boolean
Mandatory (last option name can be omitted):
  -p [ --path ] arg      path to test string
  -f [ --files ] arg     files to test vector<string>

Run example with “-v [ —version ]” to show version:

$ ./prog-arg-manager-ctest -v
1.0.0

Run example with all mandatory options:

$ ./prog-arg-manager-ctest --num 789 -rw -p /path/to/my/dir file1.txt file2.txt file3.txt
num:   789
read:  1
write: 1
del:   0
path:  /path/to/my/dir
files: 
       file1.txt
       file2.txt
       file3.txt