DuplicateOptionAnnotationsException thrown on mixinStandardHelpOptions by picocli-codegen

[charphi]

DuplicateOptionAnnotationsException is thrown by picocli-codegen when mixinStandardHelpOptions is set to true on both a command with scope INHERIT and a subcommand.

Example:

@CommandLine.Command(
        name = "example",
        mixinStandardHelpOptions = true,
        scope = CommandLine.ScopeType.INHERIT,
        subcommands = AutoComplete.GenerateCompletion.class
)
public class Example {
}

Stacktrace:

[ERROR] FATAL ERROR: picocli.CommandLine$DuplicateOptionAnnotationsException: Option name '-h' is used by both field boolean picocli.CommandLine$AutoHelpMixin.helpRequested and field boolean picocli.CommandLine$AutoHelpMixin.helpRequested
        at picocli.CommandLine$DuplicateOptionAnnotationsException.create(CommandLine.java:17963)
        at picocli.CommandLine$DuplicateOptionAnnotationsException.access$2500(CommandLine.java:17957)
        at picocli.CommandLine$Model$CommandSpec.addOption(CommandLine.java:6572)
        at picocli.CommandLine$Model$CommandSpec.addMixin(CommandLine.java:6818)
        at picocli.CommandLine$Model$CommandSpec.mixinStandardHelpOptions(CommandLine.java:7157)
        at picocli.CommandLine$Model$CommandSpec.mixinStandardHelpOptions(CommandLine.java:7172)
        at picocli.CommandLine$Model$CommandSpec.mixinStandardHelpOptions(CommandLine.java:7172)
        at picocli.codegen.annotation.processing.AbstractCommandSpecProcessor$Context.connectModel(AbstractCommandSpecProcessor.java:922)
        at picocli.codegen.annotation.processing.AbstractCommandSpecProcessor$Context.access$000(AbstractCommandSpecProcessor.java:807)
        at picocli.codegen.annotation.processing.AbstractCommandSpecProcessor.tryProcess(AbstractCommandSpecProcessor.java:194)
        at picocli.codegen.annotation.processing.AbstractCommandSpecProcessor.process(AbstractCommandSpecProcessor.java:165)

[remkop]

Hi @charphi , this is by design:

putting scope=INHERIT on a command means that you don't need to put mixinStandardHelpOptions = true on any subcommands any more.

This is documented in the user manual: https://picocli.info/#_inherited_command_attributes

Other options are not inherited.

[remkop]

Oh, I see what you mean now; since GenerateCompletion is a built-in command, people may expect to be able to combine it with scope = INHERIT.

Perhaps we should add a WARN admonition to the Inherited Command Attributes section that this is a known limitation.

[remkop]

Ah wait, I think I understand what you mean (this time for real 🤣 - at least I hope...)

There is an inconsistency: at runtime, the above Example class does not throw a DuplicateOptionAnnotationsException; it has some special logic to prevent this error.
However, this special logic is missing from the annotation processor, so at compile time, when the annotation processor is enabled, we are seeing this error.

So, we should fix the annotation processor to not fail on the above Example class.

[remkop]

I pushed a fix to master. Please verify when you have a chance.

Thinking to release 4.6.2 soon, that includes this fix.

[charphi]

I've just tested and it works. Thanks!