Question

I use Apache Commons CLI for parsing command line arguments.

I am looking for a way to display multiple argument value names in the help.
Here is an example for one argument of the option “startimport”:

Option startimport = OptionBuilder
                .withArgName("environment")
                .hasArg()
                .withDescription(
                        "Description")
                .create("startimport");

When I use -help it prints out:

-startimport <environment>                    Description

Thatfs fine. But what if I want to use two arguments?

Option startimport = OptionBuilder
                .withArgName("firstArg secondArg")
                .hasArgs(2)
                .withDescription("Description")
                .create("startimport ");

Parsing the two arguments is not the problem but I want the following output in the “-help”:

startimport <firstArg> <secondArg>                    Description

But currently I would just get:

startimport <firstArg secondArg>                    Description

Is there a proper solution for that problem?

Answer 1

I used a naughty way to solve this problem.

    OptionBuilder.hasArgs(3);
    OptionBuilder.withArgName("hostname> <community> <oid");
    OptionBuilder.withDescription("spans switch topology. Mutually exclusive with -s");
    Option my_a = OptionBuilder.create("a");

It appears correctly in the help now. Though I am not sure if this has consequences though.