Niche.CommandLine

A simple convention based argument handler to make it easy for .NET developers to write console applications.

Conventions

Commandline options are declared by writing methods that comply with the appropriate convention (see below for examples).

Each option has a short form starting with a single dash - (e.g.: -f, -h or -rs) and a long form starting with a double dash -- (e.g.: --find, --help or --report-status). These names are derived from the names of the implementing methods (e.g.: Find(), Help() or ReportStatus()).

Switches

To define a switch, declare a method with no return and no parameters. Give it a [Description] attribute to document what the switch does.

For example, this method:

[Description("Show help listing all available options")]
public void Help();

will give the options -h and --help.

Parameters

To define a parameter, declare a method with no return and one parameter. Again, give it a [Description] attribute to document what the option does.

For example, this method:

[Description("Find files that match a wildcard")]
public void Find(string wildcard);

will give the options -f <wildcard> and --find <wildcard>.

Modes

To define a whole new mode, declare a method returning a new driver instance that has no parameters. Again, you "opt-in" by giving it a [Description] attribute to document what the mode does.

For example, this method:

[Description("Compare the results of two compilers between systems")]
public CompilerDriver TestCompiler();

declares a mode test-compiler.

See Mode Support for more information.