Attempting to utilize the Optimist API's help() function to display the usage() information

I am relatively new to using optimist and despite my attempts at researching and experimenting, I have been unable to find a streamlined method for incorporating a --help option.

In the documentation, there is mention of a help() function. Based on this information, I would anticipate that the following code should function as intended:

var argv = require('optimist')
  .usage('Some usage')
  .alias('l', 'local')
  .describe('l', 'uses local repo')
  .help()
  .argv

If I were to enter ./myScript --help in the terminal, I would expect to see the specified usage information. While I understand that I could examine the argv object for a -h or --help option and then use console(argv.usage) to display the usage, my goal was to utilize the provided API instead of implementing a workaround.

Does this question align with what is expected? Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

bitoiu

javascriptnode.jsparsing

Answer №1

If you are looking to show usage information, it's important to keep a reference to the object returned from require(). This is because the object received from .argv is a plain object and does not have direct access to functions like help() or showHelp(). Below is an example to guide you in the right direction:

var optimist = require('optimist')
    .usage('$0: This is an example on how to use optimist')
    .describe('h', 'Display the usage')
    .describe('l', 'uses local repo')
    .alias('h', 'help')
    .alias('l', 'local');

var argv = optimist.argv;

if (argv.help) {
    optimist.showHelp();
    process.exit(0);
}

if (argv.local) {
    // Perform actions based on local repository
    console.info('Got the -l/--local flag!');
}

Running the code with either -h or --help as arguments will display the following output:

node ./ex-optimist.js: This is an example on how to use optimist

Options:
  -h, --help   Display the usage
  -l, --local  uses local repo

It's worth noting that using the .help function will return the usage as a string, and subsequent attempts to use .argv will result in your argv variable being 'undefined'.

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