ecl_command_line Documentation

ecl_command_line

Embeds the TCLAP library inside the ecl. This is a very convenient command line parser in templatised c++.

packageSummary

Provides a templatised c++ parser for handling command line arguments. The templates provide a very flexible manner for handling any type of input argument.

The code for the command line parser is a simple wrapper around another template header library called TCLAP. Since it is relatively small, its bundled here in the command_line subdirectory and namespaced in a convenient manner. Licensing terms (MIT) are included in the command_line subdirectory (also included as an install target).

Alternatives

A more complicated, but more flexible alternative (it allows argument parsing from both command line and configuration file simultaneously) is the boost::program_options library.

CompilingLinking

Include the following at the top of any translation unit which requires this library:

        #include <ecl/command_line.hpp>
    
    // Interface classes
    using ecl::CmdLine;
    using ecl::ArgException
    // Argument classes
    using ecl::SwitchArg;
    using ecl::ValueArg;
    using ecl::MultiArg;
    using ecl::UnlabeledValueArg; 
    using ecl::UnlabeledMultiArg; // there are more - see tclap docs

Since it is a template header library, no linking is required if you are only using these classes.

usage

Initialisation

A single object is used to parse the command line. Initialise it with a few default properties. These will be used to automatically generate a --help argument.

  // Supply a program description, argument separator (optional) and version number (optional).
  CmdLine cmd("This is a test program to test the command line parsing facilities provided by TCLAP.");
  // CmdLine cmd("This is a test program to test the command line parsing facilities provided by TCLAP.", ' ', "0.01");

Adding Arguments

  // Add a boolean (flag, name, description, default)
  SwitchArg debug("d","debug","Enable debugging.", false);
  cmd.add(debug);

  // Add an int (flag,name,description,compulsory flag,default value,help description of the type")
  ValueArg<int> intArg("i","integer","An integer argument for testing.",false,5,"integer");
  // Not a regular option (name,description,compulsory flag,default value,help description of the type")
  UnlabeledValueArg<std::string> outputDirArg("output_dir","Output directory for rectified images.",true,"./rectified","string");

  cmd.add(intArg);

Valid argument types include

Custom Arguments

Custom ValueArg types can be used so long as they implement the >> operator.

Further Help (TCLAP)

Most of tclap's doxygen is generated automatically inside the ecl. For more detailed documentation, read the manual at tclap's home page.

unitTests

Examples

ChangeLog

Errata

Now it's in the ros, at some point in the future I will unwind this back to the original package since it no longer needs to be embedded in the ecl.



ecl_command_line
Author(s): Daniel Stonier
autogenerated on Sun Oct 5 2014 23:35:41