Cannot pass arguments that begin with a -

[TomWright]

I've found that you cannot pass arguments starting with a - to any cobra application.

I've tracked it down to this section of code:

pflag/flag.go

Lines 962 to 965 in 85dd5c8

	if len(name) == 0 || name[0] == '-' || name[0] == '=' {
	err = f.failf("bad flag syntax: %s", s)
	return
	}

The example use-cases are here:

• Can not set negative integer value in command line TomWright/dasel#117
• Using '---' as value gives an error TomWright/dasel#101

Are there any options that can allow my application to just ignore unknown shorthand flag inputs and treat it as an argument rather than throw this error?

[cornfeedhobo]

@TomWright This is an interesting case. I'm busy today, but might find time to look this weekend. If you'd like to help me, writing a failing test would be great. Thanks.

[TomWright]

The following test shows this in action:

func TestParseAllowsArgumentsStartingWithDash(t *testing.T) {
	f := NewFlagSet("parseallowsargumentsstartingwithdash", ContinueOnError)

	args := []string{"100", "-5"}
	if err := f.Parse(args); err != nil {
		t.Errorf("f.Parse() = false after Parse: %s", err)
	}
}

Imagine a calculator application that accepts two integers and will add them together.

./calc add x y

We support adding negative numbers:

./calc add 100 -5

I'm not sure what the solution should be here:

• Ignore unknown flag inputs?
• Escape dashes?

[TomWright]

Hey @cornfeedhobo,

Sorry to chase but this is causing issues with my project. Did you get a chance to take a look at this?