MarkFlagsRequiredTogether function does not work as expected if any required flag provided

[bilalcaliskan]

Hello folks, I have noticed a strange behavior about MarkFlagsRequiredTogether function. I am using cobra v1.6.1 with Golang 1.19.1. Here is the code snippet:

rootCmd.MarkFlagsRequiredTogether("accessKey", "secretKey", "bucketName", "substring", "region")

If i dont provide any of the flags, i expect cobra to throw an error but somehow it is not throwing an error. It passes that line and fails on normal application flow as expected.

BUT; if i provide at least one required flag, it gives me my desired error like that(assume that i have provided secretKey flag:

Error: if any flags in the group [accessKey secretKey bucketName substring region] are set they must all be set; missing [accessKey bucketName region substring]

Btw i am willing to contribute that project by finding the problematic part of the code and throwing desired error. Cheers!

[Luap99]

That is the point of MarkFlagsRequiredTogether() as it is described in that function comment. Looks like you want MarkFlagRequired().

[bilalcaliskan]

I dont get it, i think in my case cobra should also throw an error. Do you mean that i must call MarkFlagRequired() for each required field instead of MarkFlagsRequiredTogether? Function description specifies the behavior of itself like that:

// MarkFlagsRequiredTogether marks the given flags with annotations so that Cobra errors
// if the command is invoked with a subset (but not all) of the given flags.

In that description, it says cobra will throw an error if i call i dont provide AT LEAST 1 required flag which is the function parameter. Am i missing something?

As a summary, if it is something like you said, i would definetely suggest you to change that function's name because with that name and the behavior of you mentioned, it is literally misunderstandable.

[Luap99]

I dont get it, i think in my case cobra should also throw an error. Do you mean that i must call MarkFlagRequired() for each required field instead of MarkFlagsRequiredTogether?

yes

// MarkFlagsRequiredTogether marks the given flags with annotations so that Cobra errors
// if the command is invoked with a subset (but not all) of the given flags.

In that description, it says cobra will throw an error if i call i dont provide AT LEAST 1 required flag which is the function parameter. Am i missing something?

It says: if the command is invoked with a subset (but not all) of the given flags I guess it is open to interpretation if no flags are considered a subset.

The name cannot be changed since it is part of the Public API which isstable. For me, MarkFlagsRequiredTogether means that they are required together (if I set one I have to set the others as well).
It is also described here: https://github.com/spf13/cobra/blob/10cf7be9972ee5b5994cf760ecba642309ac8685/user_guide.md#flag-groups

I am not a maintainer but you can always create a PR to improve the wording. PR #1654 implemented the feature for reference.

[bilalcaliskan]

@Luap99 thanks for your detailed explanation, my bad!