easy-args

A stupidly simple command-line argument reader.

WTF WHY?

There are a lot of great full-featured command-line argument parsers out there: minimist, yargs, nomnom, and a gazillion others in npm.

easy_args is for when you just want something a tiny bit better than process.argv.indexOf('--arg'), but you don't need/want something fancy and complicated.

API

Get the value of an argument, provide an optional default.

easy_args just looks for something in process.argv that looks like either 'arg' or '--arg', and returns the value immediately after it.

var easy_args = require('easy-argv')
 
var port = easy_args('port', { default: 8080 })
 
// check for a flag - return true if the option is present, false if not
var secure = easy_args('ssl', { flag: true })

That's it.

OK THERE'S (a little) MORE

Numeric args

Anything that looks like a number is converted to a number:

var port = easy_args('port')
// => 8080 (not "8080")

Automatic conversion can be disabled by passing the numbers: false option:

var port = easy_args('port', { numbers: false })
// => "8080" (not 8080)

Custom argument array

Provide a custom argv array as the last argument. We use process.argv by default.

var port = easy_args('port', { default: 8080 }, ['port', '3117'])
//=> 3117
 
var port = easy_args('port', { default: 8080 }, [])
//=> 8080
 
var name = easy_args('name', ['name', 'Steve'])
//=> 'Steve'

Environment Variables

Environment-based configuration is nice, let's support that. Just pass env: true:

var port = easy_args('port', { default: 8080, env: true })
// looks in process.env for PORT first, then argv for 'port' or '--port'

Aliases

Allow multiple names for arguments by passing an array of names, or using the alias option (which can also be an array if you want to have lots of names for the same option. Don't go too crazy with this though.)

var port = easy_args(['port', 'p'], { default: 8080 })
var port = easy_args('port', { default: 8080, alias: 'p' })

Batch mode

Get a batch of args all at once

var args = easy_args({
  port: { alias: 'p', default: 8080 },
  ssl: { flag: true },
})

That's all there is. EASY, RIGHT?