.NET - Launch Arguments Parser Library

A simple and 'to-the-point' library to parse launch arguments in .NET Framework and .NET Core applications.

This library is an improved port of my PB-Arguments library that intended to achieve the same goals but was missing support for some features.
It is also has the exact same features as the port in C99-Utility-Libraries.

Features

• Easy to use, lightweight and 'to-the-point' philosophy
  • No unnecessary types, classes, procedures and whatnot
• Support for 'git-like' verbs
• Different behavior for options
  • Required options
  • Repeatable flag-like options
  • Multiple value
  • Multiple default option per verb with index-based ordering
  • Hidden in help text
  • Early parser exit
  • In-between verbs
• Configurable help text printer
• Easy exception filtering with inheritance
  • 1 common parent
  • 3 child for distinct parts of the library
  • 14 final errors thrown in specific places.
• Supports modern developer QoL
  • Fully compatible with Microsoft.DotNet.ILCompiler
  • Nullable annotations
  • Fully documented

Requirements

• .NET Framework 3.5, 4.0 or newer
• .NET Core 8.0 or newer

Documentation

Go to aziascreations.github.io/DotNet-Arguments/ for the HTML documentation.

Building

Please refer to the building.md file for more information.

Basic Example

The following example shows you how to declare 2 options and how to parse and use the launch arguments.

// Preparing options and root verb.
Option OptionHelp    = new('h', "help",    "", OptionFlags.StopsParsing);
Option OptionVerbose = new('v', "verbose", "", OptionFlags.Repeatable);
 
Verb RootVerb = new Verb("").RegisterOption(OptionHelp).RegisterOption(OptionVerbose);
 
// Parsing lanch arguments
try {
    ArgumentsParser.ParseArguments(RootVerb, args);  // 'args' is gotten from Main().
} catch(ArgumentsException) {
    Console.Error.Write("Failed to parse the launch arguments !");
    RootVerb.Clear();  // Ignoring the error and simulating no launch parameters.
}
 
// Using the results
if(OptionHelp.WasUsed()) {
    Console.WriteLine(HelpText.GetFullHelpText(RootVerb, "app.exe"));
}
 
if(OptionVerbose.WasUsed() && OptionVerbose.Occurrences >= 2) {
    // We count the number of occurences to enable more logging.
    Console.WriteLine("Activating super-verbose mode !");
}

Other Examples

• Regular Declaration
  • Standard recommended method of declaring and using the options and verbs
• Loose Declaration
  • Declaration, registration and parsing done in a single nested statement
• Help Text Printing
  • Showcases the behaviour of different option types, and how to properly print a help text
• Basic Verb Usage
  • Simple verb usage, recursive help option, and normal processing

License

The code in this repository is licensed under CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) (Public Domain).

The doxygen-awesome-css repository is used as a submodule for Doxygen and is licensed under the MIT license.