Init value of option '--name' is a [Function]

[bySabi]

When a option --name is not set on CLI, initial value is a [Function]

Example:

var Command = require('commander').Command;
var program = new Command('my-cli');

program
  .version('0.0.1')
  .option('--name <name>', 'Set name')
  .option('--name-prefix <name>', 'Set prefix name')
 .parse(process.argv);
  })
...

console.log('name: ' , program.name)
console.log('namePrefix: ', program.namePrefix)

The ouput of $ my-cli --name-prefix=test is:

name: [Function]
namePrefix: test

Here name should be undefined

The ouput of $ my-cli --name=test is:

name: test
namePrefix: undefined

Here is ok!

IMHO a widely use option like '--name' that collide with [Command.name] should have a dedicated check and initialization branch in code.

[bySabi]

I create a workaround module for this problem: safe-commander

[elliot-nelson]

There are a couple flags like this. --parent, for example.

[bySabi]

@elliot-nelson you are right, too many options collide. That's for I could not wait for commander 3.x.x release and create safe-commander.js.

Any feedback is welcome

[icosahedron]

I worked around this limitation with the following (TypeScript, but probably similar in vanilla JS):

import * as cmd from 'commander'

cmd
  .version('0.0.1')

cmd.optionValues = {}

cmd
  .command('start <duration>')
  .alias('st')
  .description('start session for <duration>')
  .option('-n, --name [name]', 'name of the timer')
  .option("-t, --task [task description]", "description of task for timer")
  .action(function(duration){
    console.log(duration);
    console.log(cmd.optionValues);
  })
  .on('--help', function() {
      console.log("\nduration must be a number followed by an m for minutes (20m) or s for seconds (120s).\n")
  })
  .on('option:name', function(opt) {
      cmd.optionValues.name = opt;
  })
  .on('option:task', function(opt) {
      cmd.optionValues.task = opt;
  });

[shadowspawn]

Closing this as covered by #183 and #933

[shadowspawn]

I have opened a Pull Request which allows storing option values separately rather than as command properties (access using .opts()), and passes the options (rather than the command) to the action handler.

See #1102