Custom generators

[patriksvensson]

First, let me say thank you for a fantastic project!

I'm currently generating documentation for a project of mine and would like to auto-generate the documentation for CLI flags, options, and subcommand based on an XML or JSON file. I notice that clap has built-in support for generating shell completions, but the introspective part of clap doesn't seem to be exposed to the outside world (at least that's my impression).

My question is, is it possible to implement a custom generator for clap without forking the project?

Thanks!

[kbknapp]

Is your documentation in XML/JSON, or the CLI spec that you're building a clap implementation XML/JSON?

The introspective part is technically public (because its what clap_generate uses), but it's treated as private (not publicly documented for this reason). So you're welcome to use it, but realize it can change without warning 😄

Also, once the manpage generation feature is complete, you may be able to some sort man->your documentation conversion easier than using claps introspection.

[CreepySkeleton]

The introspective part is technically public (because its what clap_generate uses), but it's treated as private (not publicly documented for this reason). So you're welcome to use it, but realize it can change without warning 😄

Hmm, this wasn't our (@pksunkara and I) intention. These getters were supposed to be exposed to for this exact reason: allow users to query various info from an App instance. And I believe they are documented 😄.

[kbknapp]

I stand corrected 😄 Consider my answer historical context, while yours is current.

@patriksvensson docs is something we're in the process of updating for the 3.0 release, so please bare with us while some of what you're describing may not be fully documented yet 😉

[patriksvensson]

Thanks for the quick reply!

Just to make sure I understand correctly. The get_subcommands method (for example) is part of the 3.0-beta release of clap and not available in 2.x?

Thanks!

[CreepySkeleton]

Correct, as sad as it is 😢

[patriksvensson]

Not sad. I understand completely 👍