CArgs

A C/C++ argument parser library

Requirements

• GCC
• Cmake
• make

Installation

1. Inside project, make a directory named 'build': mkdir build
2. Change directory to 'build' folder: cd build
3. Execute cmake command: cmake ..
4. Make project: make
5. Install library: make install

Usage

Create an array of CargsMap_t structure and define the arguments map:

CargsMap_t *map = {
    {"first-name", 'f', true, "User first name"},
    {"last-name", 'l', true, "User last name"},
    {"email", 'e', false, "Email address"}
};

The CargsMap_t structure fields are:

• w_key: An string argument key and starts with two dashes (--) as input (Example: --first-name)
• c_key: A character argument key and starts with a dash (-) as input (Example: -f)
• required: If this flag be true, then it should include as input, Otherwise input is invalid
• desc: Description of argument that shows with help argument
• value: If value was provided in arguments input, the value of key will get copy in this field after parsing

Then declare a variable with type of size_t that contains length of map fields.

size_t map_size = 3;

Then parse the arguments by passing map array, map array length, int argc, char **argv to cargs_parse function like this:

cargs_parse(map, map_size, argc, argv);

Parsing will read fields from input and sets value of each map field from it.

You can validate the input after parsing by calling this function:

bool is_valid = cargs_validate(map, map_size, true);

• First argument is array of map
• Second argument is length of map
• Third argument is boolean that determines after detecting an invalid argument exit from process or not

Return value of this function is a boolean.

You can call cargs_get to get value of an argument:

char* first_name = cargs_get(map, map_size, "first-name");

• First argument is array of map
• Second argument is length of map
• Third argument is w_key value of a map field. Then returns value of argument if exists. Otherwise returns NULL

You can print help message by calling cargs_help function:

cargs_help(map, map_size);

• First argument is array of map
• Second argument is length of map

Also, this message can display using help special argument:

./your_exe help

Example

#include <cargs.h>
#include <stdio.h>

int main(int argc, char **argv){
    CargsMap_t *map = {
        {"first-name", 'f', true, "User first name"},
        {"last-name", 'l', true, "User last name"},
        {"email", 'e', false, "Email address"}
    };
   size_t map_size = 3;
   cargs_parse(map, map_size, argc, argv);
   
   bool is_valid = cargs_validate(map, map_size, true);
   char* first_name = cargs_get(map, map_size, "first-name");
   char* last_name = cargs_get(map, map_size, "last-name");
   
   printf("User fullname: %s %s\n", first_name, last_name);
   return 0;
}

Execution:

./your_exe --first-name Pedram --last-name Dehghanpour

or

./your_exe -f Pedram -l Dehghanpour