parse argument options


Keywords
argv, getopt, parser, optimist
License
MIT
Install
npm install minimist@1.1.0

Documentation

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parse argument options

This module is the guts of optimist's argument parser without all the fanciful decoration.

example

var argv = require('minimist')(process.argv.slice(2));
console.log(argv);
$ node example/parse.js -a beep -b boop
{ _: [], a: 'beep', b: 'boop' }
$ node example/parse.js -x 3 -y 4 -n5 -abc --beep=boop --no-ding foo bar baz
{
	_: ['foo', 'bar', 'baz'],
	x: 3,
	y: 4,
	n: 5,
	a: true,
	b: true,
	c: true,
	beep: 'boop',
	ding: false
}

methods

var parseArgs = require('minimist')

var argv = parseArgs(args, opts={})

Return an argument object argv populated with the array arguments from args.

argv._ contains all the arguments that didn't have an option associated with them.

Numeric-looking arguments will be returned as numbers unless opts.string or opts.boolean contains that argument name. To disable numeric conversion for non-option arguments, add '_' to opts.string.

A negated argument of the form --no-foo returns false for option foo.

Any arguments after '--' will not be parsed and will end up in argv._.

options can be:

  • opts.string - a string or array of strings argument names to always treat as strings

  • opts.boolean - a boolean, string or array of strings to always treat as booleans. if true will treat all double hyphenated arguments without equal signs as boolean (e.g. affects --foo, not -f or --foo=bar)

  • opts.alias - an object mapping string names to strings or arrays of string argument names to use as aliases

  • opts.default - an object mapping string argument names to default values

  • opts.stopEarly - when true, populate argv._ with everything after the first non-option

  • opts['--'] - when true, populate argv._ with everything before the -- and argv['--'] with everything after the --. Here's an example:

    > require('./')('one two three -- four five --six'.split(' '), { '--': true })
    {
      _: ['one', 'two', 'three'],
      '--': ['four', 'five', '--six']
    }
    

    Note that with opts['--'] set, parsing for arguments still stops after the --.

  • opts.unknown - a function which is invoked with a command line parameter not defined in the opts configuration object. If the function returns false, the unknown option is not added to argv.

install

With npm do:

npm install minimist

license

MIT