Can OptionParser skip unknown options, to be processed later in a Ruby program?

Question

Is there any way to kick off OptionParser several times in one Ruby program, each with different sets of options?

For example:

$ myscript.rb --subsys1opt a --subsys2opt b

Here, myscript.rb would use subsys1 and subsys2, delegating their options handling logic to them, possibly in a sequence where 'a' is processed first, followed by 'b' in separate OptionParser object; each time picking options only relevant for that context. A final phase could check that there is nothing unknown left after each part processed theirs.

The use cases are:

1. In a loosely coupled front-end program, where various components have different arguments, I don't want 'main' to know about everything, just to delegate sets of arguments/options to each part.

2. Embedding some larger system like RSpec into my application, and I'd to simply pass a command-line through their options without my wrapper knowing those.

I'd be OK with some delimiter option as well, like -- or --vmargs in some Java apps.

There are lots of real world examples for similar things in the Unix world (startx/X, git plumbing and porcelain), where one layer handles some options but propagates the rest to the lower layer.

Out of the box, this doesn't seem to work. Each OptionParse.parse! call will do exhaustive processing, failing on anything it doesn't know about. I guess I'd happy to skip unknown options.

Any hints, perhaps alternative approaches are welcome.

Answer 1

I needed a solution that wouldn't throw OptionParser::InvalidOption ever, and couldn't find an elegant solution among the current answers. This monkey patch is based on one of the other answers but cleans it up and makes it work more like the current order! semantics. But see below for an unsolved issue inherent to multiple-pass option parsing.

class OptionParser
  # Like order!, but leave any unrecognized --switches alone
  def order_recognized!(args)
    extra_opts = []
    begin
      order!(args) { |a| extra_opts << a }
    rescue OptionParser::InvalidOption => e
      extra_opts << e.args[0]
      retry
    end
    args[0, 0] = extra_opts
  end
end

Works just like order! except instead of throwing InvalidOption, it leaves the unrecognized switch in ARGV.

RSpec tests:

describe OptionParser do
  before(:each) do
    @parser = OptionParser.new do |opts|
      opts.on('--foo=BAR', OptionParser::DecimalInteger) { |f| @found << f }
    end
    @found = []
  end

  describe 'order_recognized!' do
    it 'finds good switches using equals (--foo=3)' do
      argv = %w(one two --foo=3 three)
      @parser.order_recognized!(argv)
      expect(@found).to eq([3])
      expect(argv).to eq(%w(one two three))
    end

    it 'leaves unknown switches alone' do
      argv = %w(one --bar=2 two three)
      @parser.order_recognized!(argv)
      expect(@found).to eq([])
      expect(argv).to eq(%w(one --bar=2 two three))
    end

    it 'leaves unknown single-dash switches alone' do
      argv = %w(one -bar=2 two three)
      @parser.order_recognized!(argv)
      expect(@found).to eq([])
      expect(argv).to eq(%w(one -bar=2 two three))
    end

    it 'finds good switches using space (--foo 3)' do
      argv = %w(one --bar=2 two --foo 3 three)
      @parser.order_recognized!(argv)
      expect(@found).to eq([3])
      expect(argv).to eq(%w(one --bar=2 two three))
    end

    it 'finds repeated args' do
      argv = %w(one --foo=1 two --foo=3 three)
      @parser.order_recognized!(argv)
      expect(@found).to eq([1, 3])
      expect(argv).to eq(%w(one two three))
    end

    it 'maintains repeated non-switches' do
      argv = %w(one --foo=1 one --foo=3 three)
      @parser.order_recognized!(argv)
      expect(@found).to eq([1, 3])
      expect(argv).to eq(%w(one one three))
    end

    it 'maintains repeated unrecognized switches' do
      argv = %w(one --bar=1 one --bar=3 three)
      @parser.order_recognized!(argv)
      expect(@found).to eq([])
      expect(argv).to eq(%w(one --bar=1 one --bar=3 three))
    end

    it 'still raises InvalidArgument' do
      argv = %w(one --foo=bar)
      expect { @parser.order_recognized!(argv) }.to raise_error(OptionParser::InvalidArgument)
    end

    it 'still raises MissingArgument' do
      argv = %w(one --foo)
      expect { @parser.order_recognized!(argv) }.to raise_error(OptionParser::MissingArgument)
    end
  end
end

Problem: normally OptionParser allows abbreviated options, provided there are enough characters to uniquely identify the intended option. Parsing options in multiple stages breaks this, because OptionParser doesn't see all the possible arguments in the first pass. For example:

describe OptionParser do
  context 'one parser with similar prefixed options' do
    before(:each) do
      @parser1 = OptionParser.new do |opts|
        opts.on('--foobar=BAR', OptionParser::DecimalInteger) { |f| @found_foobar << f }
        opts.on('--foo=BAR', OptionParser::DecimalInteger) { |f| @found_foo << f }
      end
      @found_foobar = []
      @found_foo = []
    end

    it 'distinguishes similar prefixed switches' do
      argv = %w(--foo=3 --foobar=4)
      @parser1.order_recognized!(argv)
      expect(@found_foobar).to eq([4])
      expect(@found_foo).to eq([3])
    end
  end

  context 'two parsers in separate passes' do
    before(:each) do
      @parser1 = OptionParser.new do |opts|
        opts.on('--foobar=BAR', OptionParser::DecimalInteger) { |f| @found_foobar << f }
      end
      @parser2 = OptionParser.new do |opts|
        opts.on('--foo=BAR', OptionParser::DecimalInteger) { |f| @found_foo << f }
      end
      @found_foobar = []
      @found_foo = []
    end

    it 'confuses similar prefixed switches' do
      # This is not generally desirable behavior
      argv = %w(--foo=3 --foobar=4)
      @parser1.order_recognized!(argv)
      @parser2.order_recognized!(argv)
      expect(@found_foobar).to eq([3, 4])
      expect(@found_foo).to eq([])
    end
  end
end