README.md

nomnom

nomnom is an option parser for node and CommonJS. It noms your args and gives them back to you in a hash.

var options = require("nomnom")
    .opts({
        debug : {
            abbr: 'd',
            help: 'Print debugging info'
        },
        version: {
            help: 'print version and exit',
            callback: function() {
                return "version 1.2.4";
            }
        },
        config: {
            abbr: 'c',
            default: 'config.json',
            help: 'JSON file with tests to run'
        }
    })
    .parseArgs();

if(options.debug)
    // do stuff

You don't have to specify anything if you don't want to:

var options = require("nomnom").parseArgs();

var url = options[0];      // get the first positional arg
var debug = options.debug  // see if --debug was specified
var verbose = options.v    // see if -v was specified
var extras = options._     // get an array of the unmatched, positional args

Install

for node.js and npm:

npm install nomnom

More Details

Nomnom supports args like -d, --debug, --no-debug, --file=test.txt, --file test.txt, -f test.txt, -xvf, and positionals. Positionals are arguments that don't fit the -a or --atomic format and aren't attached to an option.

Values are JSON parsed, so --debug=true --count=3 --file=log.txt would give you:

{
    "debug": true,
    "count": 3,
    "file": "log.txt"
}

Commands

Nomnom supports command-based interfaces (e.g. with git: git add -p and git rebase -i where add and rebase are the commands):

var parser = require("nomnom");

parser.command('browser')
    .callback(runBrowser)
    .help("run browser tests");

parser.command('sanity')
    .opts({
        filename: {
            position: 1,
            help: 'test file to run'
        },
        config: {
            abbr: 'c',
            metavar: 'FILE',
            default: 'config.json',
            help: 'json file with tests to run'
        }
    })
    .callback(function(options) {
         runSanity(options.filename);
    })
    .help("run the sanity tests")

parser.parseArgs();

Each command generates its own usage message when -h or --help is specified with the command.

Usage

Nomnom prints out a usage message if --help or -h is an argument. Usage for these options in test.js:

var options = require("nomnom")
    .scriptName("runtests")
    .opts({
        path: {
            position: 0,
            help: "Test file to run",
            list: true
        },
        config: {
            abbr: 'c',
            metavar: 'FILE',
            help: "Config file with tests to run"
        },
        debug: {
            abbr: 'd',
            help: "Print debugging info"
        }
    }).parseArgs();

...would look like this:

usage: runtests <path>... [options]

path     Test file to run

options:
   -c FILE, --config=FILE   Config file with tests to run
   -d, --debug              Print debugging info

Options hash

The options hash that is passed to nomnom.opts() is a hash keyed on option name. Each option specification can have the following fields:

abbr, full, and metavar

abbr is the single character string to match to this option, full is the full-length string (defaults to the name of the option). metavar is used in the usage printout and specifies that the option expects a value, expectsValue can also be set to true for this purpose (default is false).

This option matches -d and --debug on the command line:

debug: {
  abbr: 'd'
}

This option matches -n 3, --num-lines 12 on the command line:

numLines: {
   abbr: 'n',
   full: 'num-lines',
   expectsValue: true
}

as does:

numLines: {
   abbr: 'n',
   full: 'num-lines',
   metavar: "NUM"
}

string

A shorthand for abbr, full, and metavar. For example, to attach an options to -c and --config and require an argument use a string: "-c FILE, --config=FILE"

help

A string description of the option for the usage printout.

default

The value to give the option if it's not specified in the arguments.

callback

A callback that will be executed as soon as the option is encountered. If the callback returns a string it will print the string and exit:

count: {
    expectsValue: true,
    callback: function(count) {
        if(count != parseInt(count))
            return "count must be an integer";
    }
}

position

The position of the option if it's a positional argument. If the option should be matched to the first positional arg use position 0

list

Specifies that the option is a list. Appending can be achieved by specifying the arg more than once on the command line:

node test.js --file=test1.js --file=test2.js

If the option has a position and list is true, all positional args including and after position will be appended to the array.

required

If this is set to true and the option isn't in the args, a message will be printed and the program will exit.

choices

A list of the possible values for the option (e.g. ['run', 'test', 'open']). If the parsed value isn't in the list a message will be printed and the program will exit.

type

If you don't want the option JSON-parsed, specify type "string".

hidden

Option won't be printed in the usage

Parser interface

require("nomnom") will give you the option parser. You can also make an instance of a parser with require("nomnom")(). You can chain any of these functions off of a parser:

opts

The options hash.

usage

The string that will override the default generated usage message.

help

A string that is appended to the usage.

scriptName

Nomnom can't detect the alias used to run your script. You can use scriptName to provide the correct name instead of e.g. node test.js.

printFunc

Overrides the usage printing function.

command

Takes a command name and gives you a command object on which you can chain command options.

callback

A callback that will be called with the parsed options. If a command is expected, this is the fallback callback when no command is specified.

globalOpts

The global options when commands are specified. Any options in here will be included in the usage string for any command.

parseArgs

Parses node's process.argv and returns the parsed options hash. You can also provide argv:

var options = nomnom.parseArgs(["-xvf", "--atomic=true"])

Command interface

A command is specified with nomnom.command('name'). All these functions can be chained on a command:

opts

The options for this command.

callback

A callback that will be called with the parsed options when the command is used.

help

A help string describing the function of this command.

usage

Override the default generated usage string for this command.