Poll: Enhancements to global options

[shadowspawn]

Commander supports global options by declaring them on the program. This is flexible, but Commander does not offer any additional support to make them easier to use as a programmer or find them as a user. Example program with current behaviour:

program
  .option('-g, --global');

program.command('sub')
  .option('-l, --local')
  .action((options, sub) => {
    console.log('subcommand options: %o', options);
    console.log('global options: %o', program.opts());
  });

program.parse();

$ node example.js --global sub --local
subcommand options: { local: true }
global options: { global: true }

$  node example.js help sub
Usage: example sub [options]

Options:
  -l, --local
  -h, --help   display help for command

Related: #243 #476 #905 #1024 (comment) #1078 #1426 #1631

What additional support would you like? (I am wondering what is most popular and useful, not planning to add everything!)

[shadowspawn]

1. An explicit way to access combined global and local options from action handler, without needing to use program variable.

This could be a parameter to .opts(), or a separate routine.

console.log('combined options: %o', sub.opts({ includeGlobals: true }));

Add 👍 reaction if you would like something like this.

[shadowspawn]

2. Configuration so .opts() and the options passed to the action handler always include combined global and local options.

program.includeGlobalsInOptions();

Add 👍 reaction if you would like something like this.

[shadowspawn]

3. A way to show the global options in the help for a subcommand.

program.includeGlobalOptionsInHelp();

$  node example.js help sub
Usage: example sub [options]

Options:
  -l, --local
  -h, --help   display help for command

Global Options:
  -g, --global

Add 👍 reaction if you would like something like this.
Add 🚀 reaction too if you think this should be the default behaviour.

[shadowspawn]

4. A way to declare a common option that is actually added directly to (all) the subcommands, rather than to the program. This is a different sort of "global" option than in the other examples, but has come up in some comments.

program.commonOption('-l, --local');

Add 👍 reaction if you would like something like this.

[percenuage]

It's a mandatory feature and should be implemented soon :).

[binyamin]

@shadowspawn what is the time span for this poll?

[shadowspawn]

Counts at 2021-12-21.

1. An explicit way to access combined global and local options from action handler, without needing to use program variable.
   8 👍

2. Configuration so .opts() and the options passed to the action handler always include combined global and local options.
   3 👍

3. A way to show the global options in the help for a subcommand.
   4 👍 5 🚀 (6 people total)

4. A way to declare a common option that is actually added directly to (all) the subcommands, rather than to the program.
   10 👍

Thanks for the feedback.

[shadowspawn]

@binyamin

what is the time span for this poll?

I wasn't working on global options, and two of the options have been tracking with similar numbers of votes, so I had just left the poll open!

[shadowspawn]

Opened a draft PR for .addCommonOption() #1670

FYI: @rhyslbw @GerkinDev @WinterWolf98 @phi0411141 @kasperisager @zecka @mikemilano @aprat84 @ramoncarreras @DavidDudson

[shadowspawn]

Opened a draft PR for .opts({ includeGlobals: true }) #1671

Opened a draft PR for .optsWithGlobals() #1671

FYI: @shivanshs9 @GerkinDev @gralka @kuncevic @guillaumeLamanda @mikemilano @sureshkmit @binyamin

[shadowspawn]

Opened a PR to optionally show global options in the help: #1828