parse argument options

This module is the guts of optimist's argument parser without all the fanciful decoration.

Example files: example/parse.js (CJS) / example/parse.mjs (ESM)

// for CJS
const argv = require('minimist')(process.argv.slice(2));

// for ESM
// import minimist from 'minimist';
// const argv = minimist(process.argv.slice(2));
console.log(argv);

$ node example/parse.js -a beep -b boop
{ _: [], a: 'beep', b: 'boop' }

$ node example/parse.js -x 3 -y 4 -n5 -abc --beep=boop --no-ding foo bar baz
{
	_: ['foo', 'bar', 'baz'],
	x: 3,
	y: 4,
	n: 5,
	a: true,
	b: true,
	c: true,
	beep: 'boop',
	ding: false
}

const parseArgs = require('minimist');

Return an argument object argv populated with the array arguments from args.

argv._ contains all the arguments that didn't have an option associated with them.

Numeric-looking arguments will be returned as numbers unless opts.string or opts.boolean contains that argument name. To disable numeric conversion for non-option arguments, add '_' to opts.string.

A negated argument of the form --no-foo returns false for option foo.

Any arguments after '--' will not be parsed and will end up in argv._.

options can be:

• opts.string - a string or array of strings argument names to always treat as strings

• opts.boolean - a boolean, string or array of strings to always treat as booleans. if true will treat all double hyphenated arguments without equal signs as boolean (e.g. affects --foo, not -f or --foo=bar)

• opts.alias - an object mapping string names to strings or arrays of string argument names to use as aliases

• opts.default - an object mapping string argument names to default values

• opts.stopEarly - when true, populate argv._ with everything after the first non-option

• opts['--'] - when true, populate argv._ with everything before the -- and argv['--'] with everything after the --. Here's an example:

  > require('./')('one two three -- four five --six'.split(' '), { '--': true })
  {
    _: ['one', 'two', 'three'],
    '--': ['four', 'five', '--six']
  }
  

  Note that with opts['--'] set, parsing for arguments still stops after the --.

• opts.unknown - a function which is invoked with a command line parameter not defined in the opts configuration object. If the function returns false, the unknown option is not added to argv.

With npm do:

npm install minimist

MIT