[CLI-320] Awkward behavior of Option.builder() for multiple optional args

• Type: Bug
• Status: Resolved
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Fixed
• Affects Version/s: 1.6.0
• Fix Version/s: 1.7.0
• Assignee: Unassigned
• Reporter: Paul King
• Created: 02/Nov/23 02:40
• Updated: 19/Feb/24 14:29
• Resolved: 19/Feb/24 14:29

Description

This is to flag the breaking change for 1.6.0 as mentioned here:
https://github.com/apache/commons-cli/commit/34278395b6115752774c3d16a00292591da2dde3#comments

The possible fixes seem to be:

• add Javadoc for the numberOfArgs and optionalArg methods saying that the former must come after the latter.
• make optionalArg fail (early) if the number of args is already set, so this change in behavior becomes explicit via the API rather than just a behavioral breakage later.
• tweak the behavior of optionalArg to only adjust the arg count if not already set. This removes the implicit assumption of size 1 which I think better aligns with what you get when using the (deprecated) OptionBuilder#hasOptionalArgs(int). I'll create a PR for this possible fix.

Issue Links

• links to: GitHub Pull Request #206