1 // Copyright (c) 2006-2009 The Chromium Authors. All rights reserved.
2 // Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style license that can be
3 // found in the LICENSE file.
5 // This is the file that should be included by any file which declares
6 // or defines a command line flag or wants to parse command line flags
7 // or print a program usage message (which will include information about
8 // flags). Executive summary, in the form of an example foo.cc file:
10 // #include "foo.h" // foo.h has a line "DECLARE_int32(start);"
12 // DEFINE_int32(end, 1000, "The last record to read");
13 // DECLARE_bool(verbose); // some other file has a DEFINE_bool(verbose, ...)
16 // if (FLAGS_verbose) printf("Records %d-%d\n", FLAGS_start, FLAGS_end);
19 // Then, at the command-line:
20 // ./foo --noverbose --start=5 --end=100
22 #ifndef BASE_COMMANDLINEFLAGS_H_
23 #define BASE_COMMANDLINEFLAGS_H_
28 #include "base/basictypes.h"
29 #include "base/port.h"
30 #include "base/stl_decl_msvc.h"
31 #include "base/global_strip_options.h"
33 // --------------------------------------------------------------------
34 // To actually define a flag in a file, use DEFINE_bool,
35 // DEFINE_string, etc. at the bottom of this file. You may also find
36 // it useful to register a validator with the flag. This ensures that
37 // when the flag is parsed from the commandline, or is later set via
38 // SetCommandLineOption, we call the validation function.
40 // The validation function should return true if the flag value is valid, and
41 // false otherwise. If the function returns false for the new setting of the
42 // flag, the flag will retain its current value. If it returns false for the
43 // default value, InitGoogle will die.
45 // This function is safe to call at global construct time (as in the
49 // static bool ValidatePort(const char* flagname, int32 value) {
50 // if (value > 0 && value < 32768) // value is ok
52 // printf("Invalid value for --%s: %d\n", flagname, (int)value);
55 // DEFINE_int32(port, 0, "What port to listen on");
56 // static bool dummy = RegisterFlagValidator(&FLAGS_port, &ValidatePort);
58 // Returns true if successfully registered, false if not (because the
59 // first argument doesn't point to a command-line flag, or because a
60 // validator is already registered for this flag).
61 bool RegisterFlagValidator(const bool* flag
,
62 bool (*validate_fn
)(const char*, bool));
63 bool RegisterFlagValidator(const int32
* flag
,
64 bool (*validate_fn
)(const char*, int32
));
65 bool RegisterFlagValidator(const int64
* flag
,
66 bool (*validate_fn
)(const char*, int64
));
67 bool RegisterFlagValidator(const uint64
* flag
,
68 bool (*validate_fn
)(const char*, uint64
));
69 bool RegisterFlagValidator(const double* flag
,
70 bool (*validate_fn
)(const char*, double));
71 bool RegisterFlagValidator(const string
* flag
,
72 bool (*validate_fn
)(const char*, const string
&));
75 // --------------------------------------------------------------------
76 // These methods are the best way to get access to info about the
77 // list of commandline flags. Note that these routines are pretty slow.
78 // GetAllFlags: mostly-complete info about the list, sorted by file.
79 // ShowUsageWithFlags: pretty-prints the list to stdout (what --help does)
80 // ShowUsageWithFlagsRestrict: limit to filenames with restrict as a substr
82 // In addition to accessing flags, you can also access argv[0] (the program
83 // name) and argv (the entire commandline), which we sock away a copy of.
84 // These variables are static, so you should only set them once.
86 struct CommandLineFlagInfo
{
87 string name
; // the name of the flag
88 string type
; // the type of the flag: int32, etc
89 string description
; // the "help text" associated with the flag
90 string current_value
; // the current value, as a string
91 string default_value
; // the default value, as a string
92 string filename
; // 'cleaned' version of filename holding the flag
93 bool is_default
; // true if the flag has default value
94 bool has_validator_fn
; // true if RegisterFlagValidator called on this flag
97 extern void GetAllFlags(vector
<CommandLineFlagInfo
>* OUTPUT
);
98 // These two are actually defined in commandlineflags_reporting.cc.
99 extern void ShowUsageWithFlags(const char *argv0
); // what --help does
100 extern void ShowUsageWithFlagsRestrict(const char *argv0
, const char *restrict
);
102 // Create a descriptive string for a flag.
103 // Goes to some trouble to make pretty line breaks.
104 extern string
DescribeOneFlag(const CommandLineFlagInfo
& flag
);
106 // Thread-hostile; meant to be called before any threads are spawned.
107 extern void SetArgv(int argc
, const char** argv
);
108 // The following functions are thread-safe as long as SetArgv() is
109 // only called before any threads start.
110 extern const vector
<string
>& GetArgvs(); // all of argv = vector of strings
111 extern const char* GetArgv(); // all of argv as a string
112 extern const char* GetArgv0(); // only argv0
113 extern uint32
GetArgvSum(); // simple checksum of argv
114 extern const char* ProgramInvocationName(); // argv0, or "UNKNOWN" if not set
115 extern const char* ProgramInvocationShortName(); // basename(argv0)
116 // ProgramUsage() is thread-safe as long as SetUsageMessage() is only
117 // called before any threads start.
118 extern const char* ProgramUsage(); // string set by SetUsageMessage()
121 // --------------------------------------------------------------------
122 // Normally you access commandline flags by just saying "if (FLAGS_foo)"
123 // or whatever, and set them by calling "FLAGS_foo = bar" (or, more
124 // commonly, via the DEFINE_foo macro). But if you need a bit more
125 // control, we have programmatic ways to get/set the flags as well.
126 // These programmatic ways to access flags are thread-safe, but direct
127 // access is only thread-compatible.
129 // Return true iff the flagname was found.
130 // OUTPUT is set to the flag's value, or unchanged if we return false.
131 extern bool GetCommandLineOption(const char* name
, string
* OUTPUT
);
133 // Return true iff the flagname was found. OUTPUT is set to the flag's
134 // CommandLineFlagInfo or unchanged if we return false.
135 extern bool GetCommandLineFlagInfo(const char* name
,
136 CommandLineFlagInfo
* OUTPUT
);
138 // Return the CommandLineFlagInfo of the flagname. exit() if name not found.
139 // Example usage, to check if a flag's value is currently the default value:
140 // if (GetCommandLineFlagInfoOrDie("foo").is_default) ...
141 extern CommandLineFlagInfo
GetCommandLineFlagInfoOrDie(const char* name
);
143 enum FlagSettingMode
{
144 // update the flag's value (can call this multiple times).
146 // update the flag's value, but *only if* it has not yet been updated
147 // with SET_FLAGS_VALUE, SET_FLAG_IF_DEFAULT, or "FLAGS_xxx = nondef".
149 // set the flag's default value to this. If the flag has not yet updated
150 // yet (via SET_FLAGS_VALUE, SET_FLAG_IF_DEFAULT, or "FLAGS_xxx = nondef")
151 // change the flag's current value to the new default value as well.
155 // Set a particular flag ("command line option"). Returns a string
156 // describing the new value that the option has been set to. The
157 // return value API is not well-specified, so basically just depend on
158 // it to be empty if the setting failed for some reason -- the name is
159 // not a valid flag name, or the value is not a valid value -- and
162 // SetCommandLineOption uses set_mode == SET_FLAGS_VALUE (the common case)
163 extern string
SetCommandLineOption(const char* name
, const char* value
);
164 extern string
SetCommandLineOptionWithMode(const char* name
, const char* value
,
165 FlagSettingMode set_mode
);
168 // --------------------------------------------------------------------
169 // Saves the states (value, default value, whether the user has set
170 // the flag, registered validators, etc) of all flags, and restores
171 // them when the FlagSaver is destroyed. This is very useful in
172 // tests, say, when you want to let your tests change the flags, but
173 // make sure that they get reverted to the original states when your
180 // FLAG_bar = "some value";
182 // // test happens here. You can return at any time
183 // // without worrying about restoring the FLAG values.
186 // Note: This class is marked with ATTRIBUTE_UNUSED because all the
187 // work is done in the constructor and destructor, so in the standard
188 // usage example above, the compiler would complain that it's an
191 // This class is thread-safe.
199 class FlagSaverImpl* impl_; // we use pimpl here to keep API steady
201 FlagSaver(const FlagSaver&); // no copying!
202 void operator=(const FlagSaver&);
204 #ifndef SWIG // swig seems to have trouble with this for some reason
209 // --------------------------------------------------------------------
210 // Some deprecated or hopefully-soon-to-be-deprecated functions.
212 // This is often used for logging. TODO(csilvers): figure out a better way
213 extern string
CommandlineFlagsIntoString();
214 // Usually where this is used, a FlagSaver should be used instead.
215 extern bool ReadFlagsFromString(const string
& flagfilecontents
,
216 const char* prog_name
,
217 bool errors_are_fatal
); // uses SET_FLAGS_VALUE
219 // These let you manually implement --flagfile functionality.
221 extern bool AppendFlagsIntoFile(const string
& filename
, const char* prog_name
);
222 extern bool SaveCommandFlags(); // actually defined in google.cc !
223 extern bool ReadFromFlagsFile(const string
& filename
, const char* prog_name
,
224 bool errors_are_fatal
); // uses SET_FLAGS_VALUE
227 // --------------------------------------------------------------------
228 // Useful routines for initializing flags from the environment.
229 // In each case, if 'varname' does not exist in the environment
230 // return defval. If 'varname' does exist but is not valid
231 // (e.g., not a number for an int32 flag), abort with an error.
232 // Otherwise, return the value. NOTE: for booleans, for true use
233 // 't' or 'T' or 'true' or '1', for false 'f' or 'F' or 'false' or '0'.
235 extern bool BoolFromEnv(const char *varname
, bool defval
);
236 extern int32
Int32FromEnv(const char *varname
, int32 defval
);
237 extern int64
Int64FromEnv(const char *varname
, int64 defval
);
238 extern uint64
Uint64FromEnv(const char *varname
, uint64 defval
);
239 extern double DoubleFromEnv(const char *varname
, double defval
);
240 extern const char *StringFromEnv(const char *varname
, const char *defval
);
243 // --------------------------------------------------------------------
244 // The next two functions parse commandlineflags from main():
246 // Set the "usage" message for this program. For example:
247 // string usage("This program does nothing. Sample usage:\n");
248 // usage += argv[0] + " <uselessarg1> <uselessarg2>";
249 // SetUsageMessage(usage);
250 // Do not include commandline flags in the usage: we do that for you!
251 // Thread-hostile; meant to be called before any threads are spawned.
252 extern void SetUsageMessage(const string
& usage
);
254 // Looks for flags in argv and parses them. Rearranges argv to put
255 // flags first, or removes them entirely if remove_flags is true.
256 // If a flag is defined more than once in the command line or flag
257 // file, the last definition is used.
258 // See top-of-file for more details on this function.
259 #ifndef SWIG // In swig, use ParseCommandLineFlagsScript() instead.
260 extern uint32
ParseCommandLineFlags(int *argc
, char*** argv
,
265 // Calls to ParseCommandLineNonHelpFlags and then to
266 // HandleCommandLineHelpFlags can be used instead of a call to
267 // ParseCommandLineFlags during initialization, in order to allow for
268 // changing default values for some FLAGS (via
269 // e.g. SetCommandLineOptionWithMode calls) between the time of
270 // command line parsing and the time of dumping help information for
271 // the flags as a result of command line parsing.
272 // If a flag is defined more than once in the command line or flag
273 // file, the last definition is used.
274 extern uint32
ParseCommandLineNonHelpFlags(int *argc
, char*** argv
,
276 // This is actually defined in commandlineflags_reporting.cc.
277 // This function is misnamed (it also handles --version, etc.), but
278 // it's too late to change that now. :-(
279 extern void HandleCommandLineHelpFlags(); // in commandlineflags_reporting.cc
281 // Allow command line reparsing. Disables the error normally
282 // generated when an unknown flag is found, since it may be found in a
283 // later parse. Thread-hostile; meant to be called before any threads
285 extern void AllowCommandLineReparsing();
287 // Reparse the flags that have not yet been recognized.
288 // Only flags registered since the last parse will be recognized.
289 // Any flag value must be provided as part of the argument using "=",
290 // not as a separate command line argument that follows the flag argument.
291 // Intended for handling flags from dynamically loaded libraries,
292 // since their flags are not registered until they are loaded.
293 extern uint32
ReparseCommandLineNonHelpFlags();
296 // --------------------------------------------------------------------
297 // Now come the command line flag declaration/definition macros that
298 // will actually be used. They're kind of hairy. A major reason
299 // for this is initialization: we want people to be able to access
300 // variables in global constructors and have that not crash, even if
301 // their global constructor runs before the global constructor here.
302 // (Obviously, we can't guarantee the flags will have the correct
303 // default value in that case, but at least accessing them is safe.)
304 // The only way to do that is have flags point to a static buffer.
305 // So we make one, using a union to ensure proper alignment, and
306 // then use placement-new to actually set up the flag with the
307 // correct default value. In the same vein, we have to worry about
308 // flag access in global destructors, so FlagRegisterer has to be
309 // careful never to destroy the flag-values it constructs.
311 // Note that when we define a flag variable FLAGS_<name>, we also
312 // preemptively define a junk variable, FLAGS_no<name>. This is to
313 // cause a link-time error if someone tries to define 2 flags with
314 // names like "logging" and "nologging". We do this because a bool
315 // flag FLAG can be set from the command line to true with a "-FLAG"
316 // argument, and to false with a "-noFLAG" argument, and so this can
317 // potentially avert confusion.
319 // We also put flags into their own namespace. It is purposefully
320 // named in an opaque way that people should have trouble typing
321 // directly. The idea is that DEFINE puts the flag in the weird
322 // namespace, and DECLARE imports the flag from there into the current
323 // namespace. The net result is to force people to use DECLARE to get
324 // access to a flag, rather than saying "extern bool FLAGS_whatever;"
325 // or some such instead. We want this so we can put extra
326 // functionality (like sanity-checking) in DECLARE if we want, and
327 // make sure it is picked up everywhere.
329 // We also put the type of the variable in the namespace, so that
330 // people can't DECLARE_int32 something that they DEFINE_bool'd
333 class FlagRegisterer
{
335 FlagRegisterer(const char* name
, const char* type
,
336 const char* help
, const char* filename
,
337 void* current_storage
, void* defvalue_storage
);
340 #ifndef SWIG // In swig, ignore the main flag declarations
342 // If STRIP_FLAG_HELP is defined and is non-zero, we remove the help
343 // message from the binary file. This is useful for security reasons
344 // when shipping a binary outside of Google (if the user cannot see
345 // the usage message by executing the program, they shouldn't be able
346 // to see it by running "strings binary_file").
348 extern const char kStrippedFlagHelp
[];
350 #if STRIP_FLAG_HELP > 0
351 // Need this construct to avoid the 'defined but not used' warning.
352 #define MAYBE_STRIPPED_HELP(txt) (false ? (txt) : kStrippedFlagHelp)
354 #define MAYBE_STRIPPED_HELP(txt) txt
357 // Each command-line flag has two variables associated with it: one
358 // with the current value, and one with the default value. However,
359 // we have a third variable, which is where value is assigned; it's a
360 // constant. This guarantees that FLAG_##value is initialized at
361 // static initialization time (e.g. before program-start) rather than
362 // than global construction time (which is after program-start but
363 // before main), at least when 'value' is a compile-time constant. We
364 // use a small trick for the "default value" variable, and call it
365 // FLAGS_no<name>. This serves the second purpose of assuring a
366 // compile error if someone tries to define a flag named no<name>
367 // which is illegal (--foo and --nofoo both affect the "foo" flag).
368 #define DEFINE_VARIABLE(type, shorttype, name, value, help) \
369 namespace fL##shorttype { \
370 static const type FLAGS_nono##name = value; \
371 type FLAGS_##name = FLAGS_nono##name; \
372 type FLAGS_no##name = FLAGS_nono##name; \
373 static FlagRegisterer o_##name( \
374 #name, #type, MAYBE_STRIPPED_HELP(help), __FILE__, \
375 &FLAGS_##name, &FLAGS_no##name); \
377 using fL##shorttype::FLAGS_##name
379 #define DECLARE_VARIABLE(type, shorttype, name) \
380 namespace fL##shorttype { \
381 extern type FLAGS_##name; \
383 using fL##shorttype::FLAGS_##name
385 // For boolean flags, we want to do the extra check that the passed-in
386 // value is actually a bool, and not a string or something that can be
387 // coerced to a bool. These declarations (no definition needed!) will
388 // help us do that, and never evaluate from, which is important.
389 // We'll use 'sizeof(IsBool(val))' to distinguish.
391 template<typename From
> double IsBoolFlag(const From
& from
);
392 bool IsBoolFlag(bool from
);
394 extern bool FlagsTypeWarn(const char *name
);
396 #define DECLARE_bool(name) DECLARE_VARIABLE(bool,B, name)
397 // We have extra code here to make sure 'val' is actually a boolean.
398 #define DEFINE_bool(name,val,txt) namespace fLB { \
399 const bool FLAGS_nonono##name = \
400 (sizeof(::fLB::IsBoolFlag(val)) \
402 ? FlagsTypeWarn(#name) : true; \
404 DEFINE_VARIABLE(bool,B, name, val, txt)
405 #define DECLARE_int32(name) DECLARE_VARIABLE(int32,I, name)
406 #define DEFINE_int32(name,val,txt) DEFINE_VARIABLE(int32,I, name, val, txt)
408 #define DECLARE_int64(name) DECLARE_VARIABLE(int64,I64, name)
409 #define DEFINE_int64(name,val,txt) DEFINE_VARIABLE(int64,I64, name, val, txt)
411 #define DECLARE_uint64(name) DECLARE_VARIABLE(uint64,U64, name)
412 #define DEFINE_uint64(name,val,txt) DEFINE_VARIABLE(uint64,U64, name, val, txt)
414 #define DECLARE_double(name) DECLARE_VARIABLE(double,D, name)
415 #define DEFINE_double(name,val,txt) DEFINE_VARIABLE(double,D, name, val, txt)
417 // Strings are trickier, because they're not a POD, so we can't
418 // construct them at static-initialization time (instead they get
419 // constructed at global-constructor time, which is much later). To
420 // try to avoid crashes in that case, we use a char buffer to store
421 // the string, which we can static-initialize, and then placement-new
422 // into it later. It's not perfect, but the best we can do.
423 #define DECLARE_string(name) namespace fLS { extern string& FLAGS_##name; } \
424 using fLS::FLAGS_##name
426 // We need to define a var named FLAGS_no##name so people don't define
427 // --string and --nostring. And we need a temporary place to put val
428 // so we don't have to evaluate it twice. Two great needs that go
430 #define DEFINE_string(name, val, txt) \
432 static union { void* align; char s[sizeof(string)]; } s_##name[2]; \
433 const string* const FLAGS_no##name = new (s_##name[0].s) string(val); \
434 static FlagRegisterer o_##name( \
435 #name, "string", MAYBE_STRIPPED_HELP(txt), __FILE__, \
436 s_##name[0].s, new (s_##name[1].s) string(*FLAGS_no##name)); \
437 string& FLAGS_##name = *(reinterpret_cast<string*>(s_##name[0].s)); \
439 using fLS::FLAGS_##name
443 #endif // BASE_COMMANDLINEFLAGS_H_