Show an arbitrary banner message (Feature request)

[rstacruz]

Something like:

require('commander')
  .banner("Output options:")
  .option("-o, --output <path>", "Write to path")
  .option("--debug", "Write debug info to file")
  .banner("Style options:")
  .option("--red", "Choose the red style")
  .option("--blue", "Choose the blue style")
  .option("--green", "Choose the green style")

Expected output:

  Usage: foobar [options]

  Options:

    -h, --help             output usage information
    -V, --version          output the version number

  Output options:

    -o, --output <path>    Write to path
    --debug                Write debug info to file

  Style options:

    --red                  Choose the red style
    --green                Choose the green style
    --blue                 Choose the blue style

aka, "option groups" or "banners" or "messages" (adding this in for anyone searching issues :-) )

[tj]

sounds reasonable to me ! maybe .title()? label? something like that, .group would work too

[rstacruz]

I like .label(), but I have no rational reason to argue that. :-)

[thethomaseffect]

I kind of feel your example would be better served by

option("--style <color>", "Choose a style")

I don't think this is all that bad an idea but I think supplying custom help text is a better idea since that gives you full control over how your stuff is formatted.

Perhaps writing a custom help module that can plug into commander.js that reuses some of the '--help' code but allows you to provide your own formatting and a way to add custom text. Reusing lodash tempting would likely work well. You could pipe it into your build system and have your help text automatically updated but still custom formatted on builds.

Food for thought :)