Commons-cli dependent arguments

Question

I am using apache commons-cli for a command line tool. I have pairs of dependent arguments, for example, argument B only makes sense if argument A. is present. This will have 2 advantages: automatic warning / error and a more useful usage indicator. Does this support commons-cli?

Answer 1

This is not true; You must force these actions manually. The CLI has OptionGroup s, but they are exclusively mutually exclusive options, not dependent. See JavaDoc for Option , OptionBuilder (which I highly recommend using) and the previously mentioned OptionGroup.