Return nil error in validateRequiredFlags when help command

[serbixote]

Hi guys!

When setting required flags to the root commands:

rootCmd.MarkPersistentFlagRequired("user")

seems that the help command throws an error before showing the help when those flags are not set:

$ ./cli help
Error: required flag(s) "user" not set
...

It does not make sense to me that required flags have to be validated when calling the help command. I do not know whether this would have more impact than skipping the validation.

In any case, thanks for your time!

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[umarcor]

This should not be required, because 'help' is checked before calling validateRequiredFlags (https://github.com/spf13/cobra/blob/master/command.go#L704) so validateRequiredFlags should never be called. I.e., it should not be required to patch validateRequiredFlags, because it should not apply in this context. Maybe the error is produced in ParseFlags? https://github.com/spf13/cobra/blob/master/command.go#L689

[serbixote]

@umarcor As you can see, that only checks whether the help flag, not the help command. I'm not sure whether this should be checked anywhere else before calling validateRequiredFlags, but I'm pretty sure that validateRequiredFlags is currently being called when using the help command 😬

[umarcor]

@umarcor As you can see, that only checks whether the help flag, not the help command.

I was precisely suggesting that the command should be checked too.

I'm not sure whether this should be checked anywhere else before calling validateRequiredFlags, but I'm pretty sure that validateRequiredFlags is currently being called when using the help command 😬

I think it should be checked somewhere between https://github.com/spf13/cobra/blob/master/command.go#L689-L703, even though it is not done now, as you say. validateRequiredFlags should not be executed at all if no flag is to be considered because it is a 'help' command.

[github-actions]

This PR is being marked as stale due to a long period of inactivity

[dzciemix]

Hi!

I think I still expirance this bug.

package main

import (
	"log"

	"github.com/spf13/cobra"
)

var RootCmd = &cobra.Command{
	Use: "program",
	SilenceUsage:  true,
	SilenceErrors: true,
}

var createCmd = &cobra.Command{
	Use:  "create",
	Args: cobra.ExactArgs(1),
	RunE: func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
		return nil
	},
}

func main() {
	RootCmd.PersistentFlags().StringP("url", "u", "", "Server address")
	RootCmd.MarkPersistentFlagRequired("url")
	RootCmd.ValidateRequiredFlags()

	RootCmd.AddCommand(createCmd)

	err := RootCmd.Execute()
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("Error!\n%v", err)
	}
}

$ go run . help 
2024/06/25 12:12:34 Error!
required flag(s) "url" not set
exit status 1