src/main/java/org/apache/commons/cli/CommandLineParser.java

/*
  Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
  contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
  this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
  The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
  (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
  the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at

      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

  Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
  distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
  WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
  See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
  limitations under the License.
 */

package org.apache.commons.cli;

/**
 * A class that implements the <code>CommandLineParser</code> interface
 * can parse a String array according to the {@link Options} specified
 * and return a {@link CommandLine}.
 */
public interface CommandLineParser
{
    /**
     * Parse the arguments according to the specified options.
     *
     * @param options the specified Options
     * @param arguments the command line arguments
     * @return the list of atomic option and value tokens
     *
     * @throws ParseException if there are any problems encountered
     * while parsing the command line tokens.
     */
    CommandLine parse(Options options, String[] arguments) throws ParseException;

    /**
     * Parse the arguments according to the specified options and
     * properties.
     *
     * @param options the specified Options
     * @param arguments the command line arguments
     * @param properties command line option name-value pairs
     * @return the list of atomic option and value tokens
     *
     * @throws ParseException if there are any problems encountered
     * while parsing the command line tokens.
     */
    /* To maintain binary compatibility, this is commented out.
       It is still in the abstract Parser class, so most users will
       still reap the benefit.
    CommandLine parse(Options options, String[] arguments, Properties properties)
               throws ParseException;
     */

    /**
     * Parse the arguments according to the specified options.
     *
     * @param options the specified Options
     * @param arguments the command line arguments
     * @param stopAtNonOption if <code>true</code> an unrecognized argument stops
     *     the parsing and the remaining arguments are added to the
     *     {@link CommandLine}s args list. If <code>false</code> an unrecognized
     *     argument triggers a ParseException.
     *
     * @return the list of atomic option and value tokens
     * @throws ParseException if there are any problems encountered
     * while parsing the command line tokens.
     */
    CommandLine parse(Options options, String[] arguments, boolean stopAtNonOption) throws ParseException;

    /**
     * Parse the arguments according to the specified options and
     * properties.
     *
     * @param options the specified Options
     * @param arguments the command line arguments
     * @param properties command line option name-value pairs
     * @param stopAtNonOption if <code>true</code> an unrecognized argument stops
     *     the parsing and the remaining arguments are added to the
     *     {@link CommandLine}s args list. If <code>false</code> an unrecognized
     *     argument triggers a ParseException.
     *
     * @return the list of atomic option and value tokens
     * @throws ParseException if there are any problems encountered
     * while parsing the command line tokens.
     */
    /* To maintain binary compatibility, this is commented out.
       It is still in the abstract Parser class, so most users will
       still reap the benefit.
    CommandLine parse(Options options, String[] arguments, Properties properties, boolean stopAtNonOption)
            throws ParseException;
     */
}