Get Flag type and required status

[xoxys]

Is there a way to find out the type of flag and if the flag is required? I would like to use this information to generate documentation.

[dearchap]

Have you looked at the App.ToMan() and App.ToMarkdown() functions to generate docs ?

[xoxys]

Yes, but I need a different format, so I build my own implementation similar to ToMarkdown. Nevertheless, as far as I can see the information if a flag is required and the flag type (stringFlag, boolFlag, etc.) is also not available while using ToMarkdown.

[dearchap]

Can you give me an example of what your docs output would look for different flags ?

[xoxys]

Sure.

[]cli.Flag{
        &cli.BoolFlag{
	        Name:        "become",
	        Usage:       "enable privilege escalation",
	        EnvVars:     []string{"PLUGIN_BECOME"},
	        Destination: &settings.Become,
	        Category:    category,
        },
        &cli.StringFlag{
	        Name:        "become-method",
	        Usage:       "privilege escalation method to use",
	        EnvVars:     []string{"PLUGIN_BECOME_METHOD", "ANSIBLE_BECOME_METHOD"},
	        Destination: &settings.BecomeMethod,
	        Category:    category,
        },
        &cli.StringFlag{
	        Name:        "become-user",
	        Usage:       "privilege escalation user to use",
	        EnvVars:     []string{"PLUGIN_BECOME_USER", "ANSIBLE_BECOME_USER"},
	        Destination: &settings.BecomeUser,
	        Category:    category,
        },
}

It is translated into this YAML file. The name is parsed from flag.GetEnvVars()[0], see https://github.com/thegeeklab/wp-plugin-go/blob/main/docs/docs.go#L75-L100

---
properties:
  - name: become
    description: |
      enable privilege escalation
    defaultvalue: false

  - name: become_method
    description: |
      privilege escalation method to use

  - name: become_user
    description: |
      privilege escalation user to use

What I would like to have is:

---
properties:
  - name: become
    description: |
      enable privilege escalation
    defaultvalue: false
    required: false
    type: BoolFlag

[dearchap]

required is easy. You can check if rf, ok := f.(cli.RequiredFlag); ok && rf.IsRequired(). The type is not easy as that isnt exported anywhere. You can use the golang reflect to get the actual type and that would give you cli.BoolFlag or cli.IntFlag etc etc.

[xoxys]

Thanks!

[dearchap]

@xoxys If you'd like to suggest changes to cli library for this please feel free to do them in #1607