[skagedal/jbock: a fork of jbock-java/jbock with the intention of playing around with shell completion script generation]

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jbock is a command line parser, which uses the same well-known annotation names as JCommander and picocli. It is an annotation processor so it doesn't use runtime reflection, but generates a custom parser at compile time instead.

Quick rundown

Create an abstract class, or alternatively a Java interface, and add the @Command annotation. In this so-called command class, each abstract method

• must return something (not void),
• must have no arguments, and
• must be annotated with either @Option, @Parameter or @VarargsParameter.

The multiplicity of options and parameters is determined by the return type of their declaring method. The types boolean, List and Optional (including OptionalInt, yada yada) have a special meaning. See example below.

@Command
abstract class DeleteCommand {

  @Option(names = {"-v", "--verbosity"},
          description = {"A named option. The return type reflects optionality.",
                         "Could use Optional<Integer> too, but using int or Integer",
                         "would make it a 'required option'."})
  abstract OptionalInt verbosity();

  @Parameter(
          index = 0,
          description = {"A required positional parameter. Return type is non-optional.",
                         "Path is a standard type, so no custom converter is needed."})
  abstract Path path();

  @Parameter(
          index = 1,
          description = "An optional positional parameter.")
  abstract Optional<Path> anotherPath();

  @VarargsParameter(
          description = {"A varargs parameter. There can only be one of these.",
                         "The return type must be List-of-something."})
  abstract List<Path> morePaths();
  
  @Option(names = "--dry-run",
          description = "A nullary option, a.k.a. mode flag. Return type is boolean.")
  abstract boolean dryRun();
  
  @Option(names = "-h",
          description = "A repeatable option. Return type is List.")
  abstract List<String> headers(); 
  
  @Option(names = "--charset",
          description = "Named option with a custom converter",
          converter = CharsetConverter.class)
  abstract Optional<Charset> charset();
  
  // sample converter class
  static class CharsetConverter extends StringConverter<Charset> {
    @Override
    protected Charset convert(String token) { return Charset.forName(token); }
  }
}

The generated class is called DeleteCommandParser. It converts a string array to an instance of DeleteCommand:

public static void main(String[] args) {
  DeleteCommand command = new DeleteCommandParser().parseOrExit(args);
  // ...
}

In addition to parseOrExit, the generated parser has a basic and side-effect free parse method. This can be used to fine-tune the help and error messages for your users.

Standard types

Some types don't need a custom converter. See StandardConverters.java.

Subcommands

The @SuperCommand annotation can be used to define a git-like subcommand structure. See javadoc.

Sample projects

• jbock-maven-example
• jbock-gradle-example

Alternatives

• Tim's list