Package net.sf.mmm.util.cli.api

Provides the API for utilities that help to build command-line-interfaces (CLI).

See:
Description

Interface Summary

CliModeObject	This is a container for a CliMode together with additional associated information.
CliParser	This is the interface used to parse the command-line arguments of a main-program.
CliParserBuilder	This is the interface used to build a CliParser from a given object.

Class Summary

AbstractMain	This is the abstract base class for a main-program.
AbstractVersionedMain	This is the abstract base class for a main-program that has a version.
CliOptionNameDefaultFilter	This is the default Filter used to decide if the name or alias of a CliOption is acceptable.
CliOutputSettings	This class represents the settings for the help output.

Enum Summary

CliContainerStyle	This enum contains the available styles for container types.
CliStyleHandling	This enum contains the available ways to handle a specific CLI-style.

Exception Summary

CliArgumentMissingException	A CliArgumentMissingException is thrown if a required argument is missing.
CliArgumentReferenceMissingException	A CliArgumentReferenceMissingException is thrown if a referenced argument is missing.
CliClassNoPropertyException	A CliClassNoPropertyException is thrown if a CLI-class is illegal because it has no property annotated with CliOption or CliArgument.
CliException	A CliException is thrown, if the commandline arguments are invalid for a specific main-program.
CliModeUndefinedException	A CliModeUndefinedException is thrown if a CliOption or CliArgument defines a mode that is NOT defined.
CliOptionAndArgumentAnnotationException	A CliOptionAndArgumentAnnotationException is thrown if a property is annotated with both CliOption and CliArgument.
CliOptionDuplicateException	A CliOptionDuplicateException is thrown if the same option occurred multiple times as commandline-argument.
CliOptionIllegalNameOrAliasException	A CliOptionIllegalNameOrAliasException is thrown if the name or alias of a CliOption is illegal.
CliOptionIncompatibleModesException	A CliOptionIncompatibleModesException is thrown if two options are used together that have incompatible modes.
CliOptionMisplacedException	A CliOptionMisplacedException is thrown if an option is misplaced, meaning that it occurred after the first argument has been detected.
CliOptionMissingException	A CliOptionMissingException is thrown if a required option is missing.
CliOptionMissingValueException	A CliOptionMissingValueException is thrown if an option requires a value that is missing (no proper value is specified as commandline argument).
CliOptionUndefinedException	A CliOptionUndefinedException is thrown if an option is given as commandline-argument if NOT defined.
CliParameterListEmptyException	A CliParameterListEmptyException is thrown if CliParser.parseParameters(String...) is called without a single parameter.
CliParserExcepiton	A CliParserExcepiton is thrown if a property is annotated as CliOption or CliArgument but the type of that property is not supported.

Annotation Types Summary

CliArgument	A CliArgument is used to annotate a property (member variable of some class or setter-method) that should be set from a main-program via a commandline argument.
CliClass	A CliClass is used to annotate a Java-class that holds the parameters of a main-program that are parsed from the commandline arguments.
CliMode	A CliMode is used to annotate a CLI annotated class in order to define a operational mode.
CliModes	This annotation is used to annotate a CLI-Class with multiple CliMode-annotations.
CliOption	A CliOption is used to annotate a property (member variable of some class or setter-method) that should be set from a main-program via a commandline option.
CliStyle	A CliStyle is used to annotated a Java-class that holds the parameters of a main-program that are parsed from the commandline arguments.

Package net.sf.mmm.util.cli.api Description

Provides the API for utilities that help to build command-line-interfaces (CLI).

CLI API

Typical java-applications start with a main-class - a class with a method with this magic signature:

public static void main(String[] args)

However you quickly notice that this was NOT the end of wisdom when designing an object-oriented language as java. A main-program often starts easy and then over the time options and arguments are added. When you want to write a maintainable main-program you want to have more infrastructure than just having a string-array lost in a static method.
I used commons-cli and gnu-getopts and then found args4j. While I loved the idea of args4j from the first moment, I was missing some features and as I found no way to integrate the wonderful native-language-support of mmm, I decided to rip the idea and simply re-implement it with all the features I was missing.
Now if you want to create a main-program, the easiest way is to extend AbstractMain.

In the context of CLI we use the term parameter for a string given on the commandline (out of String[] args). Such parameter is either an option or a value. A value can belong to an option or an argument.