demand() ignores anything after --

[cspotcode]

Here's an example:
https://runkit.com/cspotcode/5f4fe1f3c5d0c8001a637b54

some-cli --arrayOption foo bar -- positional1 positional2

With:

.demand(2)
.array('arrayOption')

Complains: "Not enough non-option arguments: got 0, need at least 2"

An array option accepts multiple values. So to separate it from the demanded positionals, we use --.
demand() ignores all values after --. Removing demand() shows that the values are -- are parsed correctly and included in the _ array.

Does demand's deprecation mean this cannot be fixed?

[bcoe]

@cspotcode I conceptually think of keys after -- as meaning, "this is no longer parsing, please stop applying parsing rules and validation to them"

I feel like this is really a problem with implicit arrays, which are a feature I don't love; since they create ambiguity between positionals and array arguments.

If I could do it over, I think I'd suggest writing the above more like this:

some-cli --arrayOption foo --arrayOption bar positional1 positional2

Where each member of the array is explicit. And -- is only used in the cases where you need to actually break out of the parse.

[bcoe]

There's a setting called "greedy arrays" which I'd like to eventually consider defaulting to false:

https://github.com/yargs/yargs-parser#greedy-arrays

[cspotcode]

These comments aren't addressing the bug raised by this ticket.

[bcoe]

@cspotcode I suppose what I'm getting at is that, is that I feel this potentially falls in the category of relying on undocumented behavior, and I don't really want to enshrine the behavior, if I can convince you not to use the array type like this.

[cspotcode]

It affects YousefED/typescript-json-schema#362, so it's not actually my code that's using arrays.

The behavior also crops up without using arrays, so it's pretty clearly a bug.

cli-that-processes-files -- -annoyingfilenamecomingfromsomewherewedonotcontrol-.txt outputfile.txt

The filename could also be the same as a flag or option, and then you'd want -- to separate positionals.

EDIT: it could also be clockclitakesweirdargs -1minute +2days, stuff like that.

[bcoe]

@cspotcode so the argument is that, if you're collecting positionals after -- in the _ variable; they should count towards the demand(N) quota?

Is the behavior the same for demandCommand of curiosity?