Help doesn't work when using subcommands

[andzdroid]

Very simple test program:

var program = require('commander');
program
  .version('0.0.1')
  .command('test', 'test command')
  .parse(process.argv);

Save it as bla.js.

If we run node bla -h, we get this error:

bla--h(1) does not exist

Similar results if we use --help.

-V and --version work fine though.

I'm okay with it not working, since we can use bla help [cmd], but the help message lists -h and --help as options, and there is no way to turn that off.

[katanacrimson]

@andzdroid Just hit this problem, found out the cause and a fix. You need to change your .parse() line.

Don't chain it off of the previous lines, it'll chain off of the .command() instance. Directly use it as program.parse.

[andrew]

@damianb can you show an example of how you got that working?

[katanacrimson]

change your last line, in your own example, to literally be program.parse(process.argv);

Don't chain it at all.

[andrew]

I have:

#!/usr/bin/env node

var program = require('commander');

program
  .version('0.0.1')
  .command('config', 'show current config')
  .command('demo', 'perform a scripted demo')

program.parse(process.argv)

Still shows the --help option but calling it results in:

$ ./bin/nodecopter --help
execvp(): No such file or directory

  nodecopter---help(1) does not exist

[katanacrimson]

@andrew In practice, works for me - working example: https://github.com/damianb/blip/blob/master/bin/blip

[andrew]

@damianb Thanks, I ended up doing this: https://github.com/andrew/nodecopter/blob/bb1246457145a61d8be2ef99c5058c9818377e2f/bin/nodecopter

[fingerpich]

I had the same problem but the following code works for me

var program = require('commander');
program
  .version('0.0.1');

program
  .command('test [name]')
  .description('test command')
  .action((name, cmd) => {
    ...
  });

program
  .parse(process.argv);