Best way to parse command line arguments in C

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When building console applications that take parameters  you can use the arguments passed to Main string   args     In the past I ve simply indexed looped that array and done a few regular expressions to extract the values  However  when the commands get more complicated  the parsing can get pretty ugly     So I m interested in    Libraries that you use Patterns that you use   Assume the commands always adhere to common standards such as answered here

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I wrote a C  command line argument parser a while back  Its at  http   www codeplex com CommandLineArguments

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C  CLI is a very simple command-line argument parsing library that I wrote  It s well-documented and open source

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I like that one  because you can  define rules  for the arguments  needed or not      or if you re a Unix guy  than you might like the GNU Getopt  NET port

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A very simple easy to use ad hoc class for command line parsing  that supports default arguments   class CommandLineArgs       public static CommandLineArgs I               get                       return m instance                       public  string argAsString  string argName                 if  m args ContainsKey argName                 return m args argName                     else return                public long argAsLong string argName                if  m args ContainsKey argName                         return Convert ToInt64 m args argName                      else return 0             public double argAsDouble string argName                if  m args ContainsKey argName                         return Convert ToDouble m args argName                      else return 0             public void parseArgs string   args  string defaultArgs                 m args   new Dictionary lt string  string gt             parseDefaults defaultArgs             foreach  string arg in args                        string   words   arg Split                   m args words 0     words 1                        private void parseDefaults string defaultArgs                 if   defaultArgs         return          string   args   defaultArgs Split                foreach  string arg in args                        string   words   arg Split                   m args words 0     words 1                        private Dictionary lt string  string gt  m args   null      static readonly CommandLineArgs m instance   new CommandLineArgs       class Program       static void Main string   args                CommandLineArgs I parseArgs args   myStringArg defaultVal someLong 12            Console WriteLine  Arg myStringArg      0      CommandLineArgs I argAsString  myStringArg             Console WriteLine  Arg someLong         0      CommandLineArgs I argAsLong  someLong

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I really like the Command Line Parser Library   http   commandline codeplex com     It has a very simple and elegant way of setting up parameters via attributes   class Options        Option  i    input   Required   true  HelpText    Input file to read         public string InputFile   get  set          Option null   length   HelpText    The maximum number of bytes to process         public int MaximumLenght   get  set          Option  v   null  HelpText    Print details during execution         public bool Verbose   get  set          HelpOption HelpText    Display this help screen         public string GetUsage                 var usage   new StringBuilder            usage AppendLine  Quickstart Application 1 0            usage AppendLine  Read user manual for usage instructions               return usage ToString

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The WPF TestApi library comes with one of the nicest command line parsers for C  development  I highly recommend looking into it  from Ivo Manolov s blog on the API      EXAMPLE  2     Sample for parsing the following command-line     Test exe  verbose  runId 10    This sample declares a class in which the strongly-    typed arguments are populated public class CommandLineArguments      bool  Verbose   get  set       int  RunId   get  set       CommandLineArguments a   new CommandLineArguments    CommandLineParser ParseArguments args  a

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I like that one  because you can  define rules  for the arguments  needed or not      or if you re a Unix guy  than you might like the GNU Getopt  NET port

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Looks like everybody has their own pet command-line parsers  figure I had better add mine as well      http   bizark codeplex com   This library contains a command-line parser that will initialize a class with the values from the command-line  It has a ton of features  I ve been building it up over many years    From the documentation     Command-line parsing in the BizArk framework has these key features    Automatic initialization  Class properties are automatically set based on the command-line arguments  Default properties  Send in a value without specifying the property name  Value conversion  Uses the powerful ConvertEx class also included in BizArk to convert values to the proper type  Boolean flags  Flags can be specified by simply using the argument  ex   b for true and  b- for false  or by adding the value true false  yes no  etc  Argument arrays  Simply add multiple values after the command-line name to set a property that is defined as an array  Ex   x 1 2 3 will populate x with the array   1  2  3    assuming x is defined as an array of integers   Command-line aliases  A property can support multiple command-line aliases for it  For example  Help uses the alias    Partial name recognition  You don   t need to spell out the full name or alias  just spell enough for the parser to disambiguate the property alias from the others  Supports ClickOnce  Can initialize properties even when they are specified as the query string in a URL for ClickOnce deployed applications  The command-line initialization method will detect if it is running as ClickOnce or not so your code doesn   t need to change when using it  Automatically creates    help  This includes nice formatting that takes into account the width of the console  Load Save command-line arguments to a file  This is especially useful if you have multiple large  complex sets of command-line arguments that you want to run multiple times

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I would strongly suggest using NDesk Options  Documentation  and or Mono Options  same API  different namespace    An example from the documentation   bool show help   false  List lt string gt  names   new List lt string gt      int repeat   1   var p   new OptionSet             n name     the  NAME  of someone to greet           v   gt  names Add  v            r repeat             the number of  TIMES  to repeat the greeting  n                this must be an integer             int v    gt  repeat   v           v    increase debug message verbosity          v   gt    if  v    null    verbosity              h help     show this message and exit           v   gt  show help   v    null        List lt string gt  extra  try       extra   p Parse  args     catch  OptionException e        Console Write   greet          Console WriteLine  e Message       Console WriteLine   Try  greet --help  for more information         return

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You may like my one Rug Cmd  Easy to use and expandable command line argument parser  Handles  Bool  Plus   Minus  String  String List  CSV  Enumeration    Built in      help mode   Built in       and    D  document generator modes   static void Main string   args                        create the argument parser     ArgumentParser parser   new ArgumentParser  ArgumentExample    Example of argument parsing            create the argument for a string     StringArgument StringArg   new StringArgument  String    Example string argument    This argument demonstrates string arguments            add the argument to the parser      parser Add       String   StringArg           parse arguemnts     parser Parse args           did the parser detect a    argument      if  parser HelpMode    false                    was the string argument defined          if  StringArg Defined    true                           write its value             RC WriteLine  String argument was defined                RC WriteLine StringArg Value                       Edit  This is my project and as such this answer should not be seen as an endorsement from a third party  That said I do use it for every command line based program I write  it is open source and it is my hope that others may benefit from it

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C  CLI is a very simple command-line argument parsing library that I wrote  It s well-documented and open source

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Powershell Commandlets   Parsing done by powershell based on attributes specified on the commandlets  support for validations  parameter sets  pipelining  error reporting  help  and best of all returning  NET objects for use in other commandlets   A couple links i found helpful getting started    Quickstart Tutorial Programming Guide on MSDN Namespace Reference on MSDN

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A very simple easy to use ad hoc class for command line parsing  that supports default arguments   class CommandLineArgs       public static CommandLineArgs I               get                       return m instance                       public  string argAsString  string argName                 if  m args ContainsKey argName                 return m args argName                     else return                public long argAsLong string argName                if  m args ContainsKey argName                         return Convert ToInt64 m args argName                      else return 0             public double argAsDouble string argName                if  m args ContainsKey argName                         return Convert ToDouble m args argName                      else return 0             public void parseArgs string   args  string defaultArgs                 m args   new Dictionary lt string  string gt             parseDefaults defaultArgs             foreach  string arg in args                        string   words   arg Split                   m args words 0     words 1                        private void parseDefaults string defaultArgs                 if   defaultArgs         return          string   args   defaultArgs Split                foreach  string arg in args                        string   words   arg Split                   m args words 0     words 1                        private Dictionary lt string  string gt  m args   null      static readonly CommandLineArgs m instance   new CommandLineArgs       class Program       static void Main string   args                CommandLineArgs I parseArgs args   myStringArg defaultVal someLong 12            Console WriteLine  Arg myStringArg      0      CommandLineArgs I argAsString  myStringArg             Console WriteLine  Arg someLong         0      CommandLineArgs I argAsLong  someLong

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My personal favorite is http   www codeproject com KB recipes plossum commandline aspx by Peter Palotas    CommandLineManager ApplicationName  Hello World       Copyright  Copyright  c  Peter Palotas    class Options       CommandLineOption Description  Displays this help text       public bool Help   false       CommandLineOption Description    Specifies the input file   MinOccurs 1      public string Name            get   return mName          set                  if  String IsNullOrEmpty value               throw new InvalidOptionValueException                   The name must not be empty   false            mName   value                   private string mName

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I wrote a C  command line argument parser a while back  Its at  http   www codeplex com CommandLineArguments

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Look at http   github com mono mono tree master mcs class Mono Options

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Look at http   github com mono mono tree master mcs class Mono Options

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There is a command line argument parser at http   www codeplex com commonlibrarynet  It can parse arguments using  1  attributes 2  explicit calls 3  single line of multiple arguments OR string array  It can handle things like the following   -config Qa -startdate   today  -region  New York  Settings01  It s very easy to use

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Looks like everybody has their own pet command-line parsers  figure I had better add mine as well      http   bizark codeplex com   This library contains a command-line parser that will initialize a class with the values from the command-line  It has a ton of features  I ve been building it up over many years    From the documentation     Command-line parsing in the BizArk framework has these key features    Automatic initialization  Class properties are automatically set based on the command-line arguments  Default properties  Send in a value without specifying the property name  Value conversion  Uses the powerful ConvertEx class also included in BizArk to convert values to the proper type  Boolean flags  Flags can be specified by simply using the argument  ex   b for true and  b- for false  or by adding the value true false  yes no  etc  Argument arrays  Simply add multiple values after the command-line name to set a property that is defined as an array  Ex   x 1 2 3 will populate x with the array   1  2  3    assuming x is defined as an array of integers   Command-line aliases  A property can support multiple command-line aliases for it  For example  Help uses the alias    Partial name recognition  You don   t need to spell out the full name or alias  just spell enough for the parser to disambiguate the property alias from the others  Supports ClickOnce  Can initialize properties even when they are specified as the query string in a URL for ClickOnce deployed applications  The command-line initialization method will detect if it is running as ClickOnce or not so your code doesn   t need to change when using it  Automatically creates    help  This includes nice formatting that takes into account the width of the console  Load Save command-line arguments to a file  This is especially useful if you have multiple large  complex sets of command-line arguments that you want to run multiple times

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This is a handler I wrote based on the Novell Options class    This one is aimed at console applications that execute a while  input    exit   style loop  an interactive console such as an FTP console for example   Example usage   static void Main string   args           Setup     CommandHandler handler   new CommandHandler        CommandOptions options   new CommandOptions            Add some commands  Use the v syntax for passing arguments     options Add  show   handler Show           Add  connect   v   gt  handler Connect v            Add  dir   handler Dir           Read lines     System Console Write   gt         string input   System Console ReadLine         while  input     quit   amp  amp  input     exit                 if  input     cls     input     clear                         System Console Clear                      else                       if   string IsNullOrEmpty input                                 if  options Parse input                                         System Console WriteLine handler OutputMessage                                     else                                       System Console WriteLine  I didn t understand that command                                                         System Console Write   gt             input   System Console ReadLine              And the source        lt summary gt      A class for parsing commands inside a tool  Based on Novell Options class  http   www ndesk org Options        lt  summary gt  public class CommandOptions       private Dictionary lt string  Action lt string   gt  gt   actions      private Dictionary lt string  Action gt   actionsNoParams            lt summary gt          Initializes a new instance of the  lt see cref  CommandOptions   gt  class           lt  summary gt      public CommandOptions                  actions   new Dictionary lt string  Action lt string   gt  gt              actionsNoParams   new Dictionary lt string  Action gt                     lt summary gt          Adds a command option and an action to perform when the command is found           lt  summary gt           lt param name  name  gt The name of the command  lt  param gt           lt param name  action  gt An action delegate lt  param gt           lt returns gt The current CommandOptions instance  lt  returns gt      public CommandOptions Add string name  Action action                 actionsNoParams Add name  action           return this                  lt summary gt          Adds a command option and an action  with parameter  to perform when the command is found           lt  summary gt           lt param name  name  gt The name of the command  lt  param gt           lt param name  action  gt An action delegate that has one parameter - string   args  lt  param gt           lt returns gt The current CommandOptions instance  lt  returns gt      public CommandOptions Add string name  Action lt string   gt  action                 actions Add name  action           return this                  lt summary gt          Parses the text command and calls any actions associated with the command           lt  summary gt           lt param name  command  gt The text command  e g  show databases  lt  param gt      public bool Parse string command                if  command IndexOf         -1                           No params             foreach  string key in  actionsNoParams Keys                                if  command    key                                         actionsNoParams key  Invoke                        return true                                                    else                          Params             foreach  string key in  actions Keys                                if  command StartsWith key   amp  amp  command Length  gt  key Length                                         string options   command Substring key Length                       options   options Trim                        string   parts   options Split                            actions key  Invoke parts                       return true                                                     return false

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The WPF TestApi library comes with one of the nicest command line parsers for C  development  I highly recommend looking into it  from Ivo Manolov s blog on the API      EXAMPLE  2     Sample for parsing the following command-line     Test exe  verbose  runId 10    This sample declares a class in which the strongly-    typed arguments are populated public class CommandLineArguments      bool  Verbose   get  set       int  RunId   get  set       CommandLineArguments a   new CommandLineArguments    CommandLineParser ParseArguments args  a

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I like that one  because you can  define rules  for the arguments  needed or not      or if you re a Unix guy  than you might like the GNU Getopt  NET port

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The WPF TestApi library comes with one of the nicest command line parsers for C  development  I highly recommend looking into it  from Ivo Manolov s blog on the API      EXAMPLE  2     Sample for parsing the following command-line     Test exe  verbose  runId 10    This sample declares a class in which the strongly-    typed arguments are populated public class CommandLineArguments      bool  Verbose   get  set       int  RunId   get  set       CommandLineArguments a   new CommandLineArguments    CommandLineParser ParseArguments args  a

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Please use the  net port of the apache commons cli API  This works great   http   sourceforge net projects dotnetcli   and the original API for concepts and introduction  http   commons apache org cli

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CLAP  command line argument parser  has a usable API and is wonderfully documented  You make a method  annotating the parameters   https   github com adrianaisemberg CLAP

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The WPF TestApi library comes with one of the nicest command line parsers for C  development  I highly recommend looking into it  from Ivo Manolov s blog on the API      EXAMPLE  2     Sample for parsing the following command-line     Test exe  verbose  runId 10    This sample declares a class in which the strongly-    typed arguments are populated public class CommandLineArguments      bool  Verbose   get  set       int  RunId   get  set       CommandLineArguments a   new CommandLineArguments    CommandLineParser ParseArguments args  a

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Please use the  net port of the apache commons cli API  This works great   http   sourceforge net projects dotnetcli   and the original API for concepts and introduction  http   commons apache org cli

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Genghis Command Line Parser  may be a little out of date  but it is very feature complete and works pretty well for me

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I recently came across The FubuCore Command line parsing implementation I really like it  the reasons being    it s easy to use - although I couldn t find a documentation for it  the FubuCore solution also provides a project containing a nice set of Unit Tests that speak more about the functionality than any documentation could it has a nice object oriented design  no code repetition or other such things that I used to have in my command line parsing apps it s declarative  you basically write classes for the Commands and sets of parameters and decorate them with attributes to set various options  e g  name  description  mandatory optional  the library even prints a nice Usage Graph  based on these definitions   Below is a simple example on how to use this  To illustrate the usage  I ve written a simple utility that has two commands   - add  adds an object to a list - an object consists of a name string   value int  and a boolean flag  - list  lists all the currently added objects   First of all  I wrote a Command class for the  add  command    Usage  add    Adds an object to the list     CommandDescription  Add object   Name    add    public class AddCommand   FubuCommand lt CommandInput gt        public override bool Execute CommandInput input                State Objects Add input      add the new object to an in-memory collection          return true            This command takes a CommandInput instance as parameter  so I define that next   public class CommandInput        RequiredUsage  add    Description  The name of the object to add        public string ObjectName   get  set          ValidUsage  add         Description  The value of the object to add        public int ObjectValue   get  set          Description  Multiply the value by -1         ValidUsage  add         FlagAlias  nv        public bool NegateValueFlag   get  set        The next command is  list   which is implemented as follows    Usage  list    List the objects we have so far     CommandDescription  List objects   Name    list    public class ListCommand   FubuCommand lt NullInput gt        public override bool Execute NullInput input                State Objects ForEach Console WriteLine            return false            The  list  command takes no parameters  so I defined a NullInput class for this   public class NullInput       All that s left now is to wire this up in the Main   method  like this       static void Main string   args                var factory   new CommandFactory            factory RegisterCommands typeof Program  Assembly            var executor   new CommandExecutor factory            executor Execute args           The program works as expected  printing hints about the correct usage in case any commands are invalid     ------------------------     Available commands    ------------------------      add - gt  Add object     list - gt  List objects   ------------------------   And a sample usage for the  add  command   Usages for  add   Add object    add  lt objectname gt   -nv     -------------------------------------------------     Arguments   -------------------------------------------------      objectname - gt  The name of the object to add     objectvalue - gt  The value of the object to add   -------------------------------------------------    -------------------------------------     Flags   -------------------------------------      -nv  - gt  Multiply the value by -1   -------------------------------------

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My personal favorite is http   www codeproject com KB recipes plossum commandline aspx by Peter Palotas    CommandLineManager ApplicationName  Hello World       Copyright  Copyright  c  Peter Palotas    class Options       CommandLineOption Description  Displays this help text       public bool Help   false       CommandLineOption Description    Specifies the input file   MinOccurs 1      public string Name            get   return mName          set                  if  String IsNullOrEmpty value               throw new InvalidOptionValueException                   The name must not be empty   false            mName   value                   private string mName

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I like that one  because you can  define rules  for the arguments  needed or not      or if you re a Unix guy  than you might like the GNU Getopt  NET port

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I would strongly suggest using NDesk Options  Documentation  and or Mono Options  same API  different namespace    An example from the documentation   bool show help   false  List lt string gt  names   new List lt string gt      int repeat   1   var p   new OptionSet             n name     the  NAME  of someone to greet           v   gt  names Add  v            r repeat             the number of  TIMES  to repeat the greeting  n                this must be an integer             int v    gt  repeat   v           v    increase debug message verbosity          v   gt    if  v    null    verbosity              h help     show this message and exit           v   gt  show help   v    null        List lt string gt  extra  try       extra   p Parse  args     catch  OptionException e        Console Write   greet          Console WriteLine  e Message       Console WriteLine   Try  greet --help  for more information         return

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Look at http   github com mono mono tree master mcs class Mono Options

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I recently came across The FubuCore Command line parsing implementation I really like it  the reasons being    it s easy to use - although I couldn t find a documentation for it  the FubuCore solution also provides a project containing a nice set of Unit Tests that speak more about the functionality than any documentation could it has a nice object oriented design  no code repetition or other such things that I used to have in my command line parsing apps it s declarative  you basically write classes for the Commands and sets of parameters and decorate them with attributes to set various options  e g  name  description  mandatory optional  the library even prints a nice Usage Graph  based on these definitions   Below is a simple example on how to use this  To illustrate the usage  I ve written a simple utility that has two commands   - add  adds an object to a list - an object consists of a name string   value int  and a boolean flag  - list  lists all the currently added objects   First of all  I wrote a Command class for the  add  command    Usage  add    Adds an object to the list     CommandDescription  Add object   Name    add    public class AddCommand   FubuCommand lt CommandInput gt        public override bool Execute CommandInput input                State Objects Add input      add the new object to an in-memory collection          return true            This command takes a CommandInput instance as parameter  so I define that next   public class CommandInput        RequiredUsage  add    Description  The name of the object to add        public string ObjectName   get  set          ValidUsage  add         Description  The value of the object to add        public int ObjectValue   get  set          Description  Multiply the value by -1         ValidUsage  add         FlagAlias  nv        public bool NegateValueFlag   get  set        The next command is  list   which is implemented as follows    Usage  list    List the objects we have so far     CommandDescription  List objects   Name    list    public class ListCommand   FubuCommand lt NullInput gt        public override bool Execute NullInput input                State Objects ForEach Console WriteLine            return false            The  list  command takes no parameters  so I defined a NullInput class for this   public class NullInput       All that s left now is to wire this up in the Main   method  like this       static void Main string   args                var factory   new CommandFactory            factory RegisterCommands typeof Program  Assembly            var executor   new CommandExecutor factory            executor Execute args           The program works as expected  printing hints about the correct usage in case any commands are invalid     ------------------------     Available commands    ------------------------      add - gt  Add object     list - gt  List objects   ------------------------   And a sample usage for the  add  command   Usages for  add   Add object    add  lt objectname gt   -nv     -------------------------------------------------     Arguments   -------------------------------------------------      objectname - gt  The name of the object to add     objectvalue - gt  The value of the object to add   -------------------------------------------------    -------------------------------------     Flags   -------------------------------------      -nv  - gt  Multiply the value by -1   -------------------------------------

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There are numerous solutions to this problem  For completeness and to provide the alternative if someone desires I m adding this answer for two useful classes in my google code library     The first is ArgumentList which is responsible only for parsing command line parameters   It collects name-value pairs defined by switches   x y  or  -x y  and also collects a list of  unnamed  entries   It s basic usage is discussed here  view the class here   The second part of this is the CommandInterpreter which creates a fully-functional command-line application out of your  Net class   As an example   using CSharpTest Net Commands  static class Program       static void Main string   args                new CommandInterpreter new Commands    Run args               example    Commands    class      class Commands               public int SomeValue   get  set            public void DoSomething string svalue  int ivalue                    With the above example code you can run the following      Program exe DoSomething  string value  5   -- or --     Program exe dosomething  ivalue 5 -svalue  string value    It s as simple as that or as complex as you need it to be   You can review the source code  view the help  or download the binary

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You may like my one Rug Cmd  Easy to use and expandable command line argument parser  Handles  Bool  Plus   Minus  String  String List  CSV  Enumeration    Built in      help mode   Built in       and    D  document generator modes   static void Main string   args                        create the argument parser     ArgumentParser parser   new ArgumentParser  ArgumentExample    Example of argument parsing            create the argument for a string     StringArgument StringArg   new StringArgument  String    Example string argument    This argument demonstrates string arguments            add the argument to the parser      parser Add       String   StringArg           parse arguemnts     parser Parse args           did the parser detect a    argument      if  parser HelpMode    false                    was the string argument defined          if  StringArg Defined    true                           write its value             RC WriteLine  String argument was defined                RC WriteLine StringArg Value                       Edit  This is my project and as such this answer should not be seen as an endorsement from a third party  That said I do use it for every command line based program I write  it is open source and it is my hope that others may benefit from it

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I would suggest the open-source library CSharpOptParse   It parses the command line and hydrates a user-defined  NET object with the command-line input   I always turn to this library when writing a C  console application

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CLAP  command line argument parser  has a usable API and is wonderfully documented  You make a method  annotating the parameters   https   github com adrianaisemberg CLAP

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There are numerous solutions to this problem  For completeness and to provide the alternative if someone desires I m adding this answer for two useful classes in my google code library     The first is ArgumentList which is responsible only for parsing command line parameters   It collects name-value pairs defined by switches   x y  or  -x y  and also collects a list of  unnamed  entries   It s basic usage is discussed here  view the class here   The second part of this is the CommandInterpreter which creates a fully-functional command-line application out of your  Net class   As an example   using CSharpTest Net Commands  static class Program       static void Main string   args                new CommandInterpreter new Commands    Run args               example    Commands    class      class Commands               public int SomeValue   get  set            public void DoSomething string svalue  int ivalue                    With the above example code you can run the following      Program exe DoSomething  string value  5   -- or --     Program exe dosomething  ivalue 5 -svalue  string value    It s as simple as that or as complex as you need it to be   You can review the source code  view the help  or download the binary

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Look at http   github com mono mono tree master mcs class Mono Options

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This is a handler I wrote based on the Novell Options class    This one is aimed at console applications that execute a while  input    exit   style loop  an interactive console such as an FTP console for example   Example usage   static void Main string   args           Setup     CommandHandler handler   new CommandHandler        CommandOptions options   new CommandOptions            Add some commands  Use the v syntax for passing arguments     options Add  show   handler Show           Add  connect   v   gt  handler Connect v            Add  dir   handler Dir           Read lines     System Console Write   gt         string input   System Console ReadLine         while  input     quit   amp  amp  input     exit                 if  input     cls     input     clear                         System Console Clear                      else                       if   string IsNullOrEmpty input                                 if  options Parse input                                         System Console WriteLine handler OutputMessage                                     else                                       System Console WriteLine  I didn t understand that command                                                         System Console Write   gt             input   System Console ReadLine              And the source        lt summary gt      A class for parsing commands inside a tool  Based on Novell Options class  http   www ndesk org Options        lt  summary gt  public class CommandOptions       private Dictionary lt string  Action lt string   gt  gt   actions      private Dictionary lt string  Action gt   actionsNoParams            lt summary gt          Initializes a new instance of the  lt see cref  CommandOptions   gt  class           lt  summary gt      public CommandOptions                  actions   new Dictionary lt string  Action lt string   gt  gt              actionsNoParams   new Dictionary lt string  Action gt                     lt summary gt          Adds a command option and an action to perform when the command is found           lt  summary gt           lt param name  name  gt The name of the command  lt  param gt           lt param name  action  gt An action delegate lt  param gt           lt returns gt The current CommandOptions instance  lt  returns gt      public CommandOptions Add string name  Action action                 actionsNoParams Add name  action           return this                  lt summary gt          Adds a command option and an action  with parameter  to perform when the command is found           lt  summary gt           lt param name  name  gt The name of the command  lt  param gt           lt param name  action  gt An action delegate that has one parameter - string   args  lt  param gt           lt returns gt The current CommandOptions instance  lt  returns gt      public CommandOptions Add string name  Action lt string   gt  action                 actions Add name  action           return this                  lt summary gt          Parses the text command and calls any actions associated with the command           lt  summary gt           lt param name  command  gt The text command  e g  show databases  lt  param gt      public bool Parse string command                if  command IndexOf         -1                           No params             foreach  string key in  actionsNoParams Keys                                if  command    key                                         actionsNoParams key  Invoke                        return true                                                    else                          Params             foreach  string key in  actions Keys                                if  command StartsWith key   amp  amp  command Length  gt  key Length                                         string options   command Substring key Length                       options   options Trim                        string   parts   options Split                            actions key  Invoke parts                       return true                                                     return false

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I would suggest the open-source library CSharpOptParse   It parses the command line and hydrates a user-defined  NET object with the command-line input   I always turn to this library when writing a C  console application

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Genghis Command Line Parser  may be a little out of date  but it is very feature complete and works pretty well for me

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I really like the Command Line Parser Library   http   commandline codeplex com     It has a very simple and elegant way of setting up parameters via attributes   class Options        Option  i    input   Required   true  HelpText    Input file to read         public string InputFile   get  set          Option null   length   HelpText    The maximum number of bytes to process         public int MaximumLenght   get  set          Option  v   null  HelpText    Print details during execution         public bool Verbose   get  set          HelpOption HelpText    Display this help screen         public string GetUsage                 var usage   new StringBuilder            usage AppendLine  Quickstart Application 1 0            usage AppendLine  Read user manual for usage instructions               return usage ToString

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Powershell Commandlets   Parsing done by powershell based on attributes specified on the commandlets  support for validations  parameter sets  pipelining  error reporting  help  and best of all returning  NET objects for use in other commandlets   A couple links i found helpful getting started    Quickstart Tutorial Programming Guide on MSDN Namespace Reference on MSDN

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There is a command line argument parser at http   www codeplex com commonlibrarynet  It can parse arguments using  1  attributes 2  explicit calls 3  single line of multiple arguments OR string array  It can handle things like the following   -config Qa -startdate   today  -region  New York  Settings01  It s very easy to use

[c#] Best way to parse command line arguments in C#?

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