short switches don't take numeric arguments

[Sequoia]

in minimist (or tail for that matter), -n10 sets n (or the switch it aliases) to 10.

A similar call with commander sets n (or the switch it aliases) to -1. This seems to mean a minimist to commander rewrite forces a CLI change, i.e. a cronjob that previously called foo -n10 will stop functioning properly if foo is upgraded from the minimist version to the commander version.

Is there a workaround? Am I mistaken?

[TheRoSS]

The same issue.
commander.option("-c, --count <positiveInteger>", "...")
with call:
node myCoolScript -c2
gives:
commander.count = -2

[TheRoSS]

This is a bug in the Command.prototype.normalize method
It is him who splits -c2345 option with parameter to a set of no parameter options -c -2 -3 -4 -5
Then parser behaves correctly and takes "correct" parameter for option "c"

[shadowspawn]

This issue will be partially resolved when v3.0.0 is released. Available now as a prerelease. See #1001

Support for passing option directly with short flags is added for recognised options (but not for options for subcommands with executable file as handler.)

[shadowspawn]

Support for directly appending values to short options has shipped in v3 (thanks @TheRoSS): https://github.com/tj/commander.js/releases/tag/v3.0.0

As per previous comment, currently only working for action handler based subcommands.