simple-bin-help

Simple help and sanity checks for Node CLI bin scripts

Install

npm install --save simple-bin-help

Use example

Imagine for example that your bin script needs at least a single string argument, like this my-tool "foo". Then we can output simple help like this

1#!/usr/bin/env node
2
3require('simple-bin-help')({
4  minArguments: 3,
5  packagePath: __dirname + '/../package.json',
6  help: 'use: my-tool <a string>'
7});

Api

Single options object, with the following properties

1var options = {
2  noExit: true | false, // simple-bin-help by default calls process.exit
3  help: 'help string',  // to display if invalid arguments
4  minArguments: n,      // min number of arguments to check
5  pkg: packageObject,   // package (or pkg) object or path for better message
6  packagePath: 'path/to/package.json',
7  onFail: fn            // user-supplied function to be called after help has been shown
8};
9require('simple-bin-help')(options);

If noExit is true, the call simply shows the error message if number of arguments is invalid and returns a boolean result.

For more examples, see examples/basic.js file that calls the method with several permutations.

Passing arguments

You might do your own argument pre-processing before calling this module. In this case pass the list of arguments as the second argument

1var args = process.argv.filter(myFilter);
2require('simple-bin-help')(options, args);

Bonus features

• Includes and calls the update-notifier module by default.
• If passed -h or --help option, shows the help message.
• If passed -v or --version option, shows the package version.

Debug

Run code with DEBUG=simple-bin-help ... environment variable

Small print

Author: Gleb Bahmutov © 2015

• @bahmutov
• glebbahmutov.com
• blog
• videos
• presentations
• cypress.tips

License: MIT - do anything with the code, but don't blame me if it does not work.

Spread the word: tweet, star on github, etc.

Support: if you find any problems with this module, email / tweet / open issue on Github

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2015 Gleb Bahmutov

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.