Have help command call help directly for subcommands, when possible

[shadowspawn]

Pull Request

Problem

The implementation of the help command like my-util help foo is a bit fragile. The implementation invokes the subcommand passing this._helpLongFlag. This can fail if:

• the current command does not have a long flag
• the subcommand uses different help flags
• the subcommand has the help option disabled

See: #1863 (help option disabled)

Solution

Call .help() directly for a known (non-external) subcommand. Just use the help flags as a fallback for external subcommands.

This takes a little extra code, but I have never been happy about passing through the help flags so I think it is worth it.

ChangeLog

• Fixed: help command works when help option is disabled

[abetomo]

If subcommandName is undefined, this._findCommand(subcommandName) also returns undefined.

How about the following code?

if (!subcommandName) {
  this.help();
} else {
  const subCommand = this._findCommand(subcommandName);
  ...
}

[shadowspawn]

The help method calls exit, so the following code will not be reached if subcommandName is undefined.

[abetomo]

That makes sense.

[abetomo]

👍