cl-argparse

A common lisp cmd argument parser inspired by python argparse

Dependencies

None

API

create-main-parser (var &optional description) elements* => parser

Create a parser with the given name and the variable of name

• var: the variable name for the parser
• description: the description for this parser
• elements: the element forms that add parsing instructions to the parser

create-sub-parser (name &optional description) elements* => parser

Create a parser with the given name and the variable of name

• name: the variable name and the name for the parser
• description: the description for this parser
• elements: the element forms that add parsing instructions to the parser

add-flag parser &key short long help var

Add a flag to the current parser

• parser: the parser to which to add the flag
• short: the short form (i.e., one character) of the flag
• long: the long form of the flag
• help: the help message to be displayed for this flag
• var: the variable into which the truth value is stored

add-optional parser &key short long default help var

Add a parameter to the current parser

• parser: the parser to which to add the parameter
• short: the short form (i.e., one character) of the flag
• long: the long form of the flag
• default: the default value to be used in case the parameter is not used
• help: the help message to be displayed for this flag
• var: the variable into which the value is stored

add-positional parser &key name help

Add a positional argument to the parser

• parser: the parser to which to add the positional argument
• name: the name of the positional element which is also the variable name into which the value is stored
• help: the help message to be displayed for this flag

add-subparser parser subparser

adds a subparser to the parser

• parser: the parser to which to add the subparser
• subparser: the subparser to be added

add-generic-parser parser gen

adds the parsing elements of the gen parser to the given parser

• parser: the parser which is to be extended
• gen: the parser from which the parser is to be extended

add-default parser &key var default

adds a default value to the parser

• parser: the parser to which the default value is added
• var: the variable name to which the default value is bound
• default: the default value

get-value name parser

get the cmd provided variable value of name from parser

• name: the name of the variable the value is required
• parser: the parser from which to extract the value

parse parser argv

parse the stringlist argv using parser parser

• parser: the parser to be used
• argv: the arguments (i.e., list of strings) to be parsed

create-mockup-parser key-value-list*

create a parser simulating a parsing resulting in the given key-value-list

• key-value-list: a paired list of strings to create the parser from

Usage

You can either use the short example below to get started or the longer example provided as commented source code in ./src/examples/example.lisp.

Short Example

(in-package :cl-argparse)

(format t "~a~%"
        (parse
         (create-main-parser (main-parser "here comes the description of the program")
           (add-flag main-parser :short "g" :long "goo" :help "this is an example flag" :var "goo")
           (add-optional main-parser :short "t" :long "test" :help "this is an example optional argument" :var "test")
           (add-positional main-parser :name "pos" :help "this is an example for a positional")
           (add-subparser main-parser (create-sub-parser (sub "this is a sub action parser")
                                        (add-positional sub :name "action" :help "this is an example for a positional"))))
         (list "-g" "-t" "alle" "positional" "sub" "theaction")))

=> <PARSER
     goo -> T
     test -> alle
     pos -> positional
     action -> theaction
   >