Understanding how Console Arguments and Options Are Handled
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Symfony Console applications follow the same docopt standard used in most CLI utility tools. This article explains how to handle edge-cases when the commands define options with required values, without values, etc. Read this other article to learn about using arguments and options inside Symfony Console commands.
Have a look at the following command that has three options:
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namespace Acme\Console\Command;
use Symfony\Component\Console\Command\Command;
use Symfony\Component\Console\Input\InputArgument;
use Symfony\Component\Console\Input\InputDefinition;
use Symfony\Component\Console\Input\InputInterface;
use Symfony\Component\Console\Input\InputOption;
use Symfony\Component\Console\Output\OutputInterface;
class DemoArgsCommand extends Command
{
protected function configure()
{
$this
->setName('demo:args')
->setDescription('Describe args behaviors')
->setDefinition(
new InputDefinition(array(
new InputOption('foo', 'f'),
new InputOption('bar', 'b', InputOption::VALUE_REQUIRED),
new InputOption('cat', 'c', InputOption::VALUE_OPTIONAL),
))
);
}
protected function execute(InputInterface $input, OutputInterface $output)
{
// ...
}
}
Since the foo
option doesn't accept a value, it will be either false
(when it is not passed to the command) or true
(when --foo
was passed
by the user). The value of the bar
option (and its b
shortcut respectively)
is required. It can be separated from the option name either by spaces or
=
characters. The cat
option (and its c
shortcut) behaves similar
except that it doesn't require a value. Have a look at the following table
to get an overview of the possible ways to pass options:
Input | foo |
bar |
cat |
---|---|---|---|
--bar=Hello |
false |
"Hello" |
null |
--bar Hello |
false |
"Hello" |
null |
-b=Hello |
false |
"=Hello" |
null |
-b Hello |
false |
"Hello" |
null |
-bHello |
false |
"Hello" |
null |
-fcWorld -b Hello |
true |
"Hello" |
"World" |
-cfWorld -b Hello |
false |
"Hello" |
"fWorld" |
-cbWorld |
false |
null |
"bWorld" |
Things get a little bit more tricky when the command also accepts an optional argument:
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// ...
new InputDefinition(array(
// ...
new InputArgument('arg', InputArgument::OPTIONAL),
));
You might have to use the special --
separator to separate options from
arguments. Have a look at the fifth example in the following table where it
is used to tell the command that World
is the value for arg
and not
the value of the optional cat
option:
Input | bar |
cat |
arg |
---|---|---|---|
--bar Hello |
"Hello" |
null |
null |
--bar Hello World |
"Hello" |
null |
"World" |
--bar "Hello World" |
"Hello World" |
null |
null |
--bar Hello --cat World |
"Hello" |
"World" |
null |
--bar Hello --cat -- World |
"Hello" |
null |
"World" |
-b Hello -c World |
"Hello" |
"World" |
null |