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The UnboundID LDAP SDK for Java is a fast, comprehensive, and easy-to-use Java API for communicating with LDAP directory servers and performing related tasks like reading and writing LDIF, encoding and decoding data using base64 and ASN.1 BER, and performing secure communication. This package contains the Standard Edition of the LDAP SDK, which is a complete, general-purpose library for communicating with LDAPv3 directory servers.

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/*
 * Copyright 2008-2018 Ping Identity Corporation
 * All Rights Reserved.
 */
/*
 * Copyright (C) 2008-2018 Ping Identity Corporation
 *
 * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
 * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPLv2 only)
 * or the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPLv2.1 only)
 * as published by the Free Software Foundation.
 *
 * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
 * GNU General Public License for more details.
 *
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 * along with this program; if not, see .
 */



/**
 * This package contains a set of classes that may be used to perform
 * command line argument parsing.  Arguments can have a number of properties,
 * including:
 * 


 * 
 *   A short identifier, which is a single character and is used by
 *       prefixing it with a single dash on the command line (e.g., "-H").
 *   A long identifier, which is a string and is used by prefixing it with
 *       two dashes on the command line (e.g., "--help").  Long arguments will
 *       be treated in a case-insensitive manner.
 *   A description, which provides basic information about the purpose of
 *       the argument.  This makes it possible for the argument parser to
 *       generate usage information.
 *   A flag that indicates whether the argument takes a value.  If it does,
 *       then it should also include a placeholder string to indicate what that
 *       value is supposed to be in the usage information.
 *   A flag that indicates whether the argument is required to be
 *       provided.
 *   A flag that indicates whether the argument is allowed to be provided
 *       multiple times.  This can be useful for arguments that are allowed to
 *       be provided with multiple values, or for cases in which having an
 *       argument provided multiple times amplifies its meaning (e.g., "-v"
 *       enables basic debugging, whereas "-v -v -v" enables the most verbose
 *       debugging).
 *   A flag that indicates whether the argument is hidden.  If an argument
 *       is hidden, it may be provided on the command line, but it will not be
 *       displayed in usage information.
 * 
 * 


 * If an argument takes a value, then it may be separated from the short or long
 * identifier using a space, or an equal sign for long identifiers (e.g.,
 * "-h server.example.com", "--hostname server.example.com", or
 * "--hostname=server.example.com").  In addition, if a short identifier is
 * provided by itself without being concatenated with any other short
 * identifiers, then the value may be directly appended to the short identifier
 * (e.g., "-hserver.example.com").  Note that it is not possible for an argument
 * to optionally take a value.  If an argument is configured to take a value,
 * then it can never be provided on the command line without one, and if an
 * argument is not configured to take a value, then it can never be provided
 * with one.
 * 


 * Arguments are generally separated from each other with one or more spaces.
 * However, if there are multiple arguments that do not take values, then it is
 * possible to concatenate their short identifiers together and prefix the
 * resulting string with a single dash (e.g., "-abcd" would be interpreted as
 * "-a -b -c -d").  This is only allowed for short identifiers, and only for the
 * case in which none of them take values.
 * 


 * It is possible to define relationships between named arguments.  It is
 * possible to indicate that at most one of a specified set of arguments is
 * allowed to be provided (i.e., that those arguments are not allowed to be used
 * together).  It is also possible to indicate that at least one of a specified
 * set of arguments must be provided.  If the same set of arguments is included
 * in both classifications, then exactly one of those arguments must be
 * provided.
 * 


 * In addition to named arguments, it is also possible to indicate that a
 * command accepts unnamed trailing arguments.  In this case, no automatic
 * validation will be performed for those trailing arguments (with the optional
 * exception of enforcing a limit on the maximum allowed number of such
 * arguments), and it is up to the application to parse and interpret them.
 * The first argument which is not the value for the previous argument and does
 * not start with one or two dashes will be considered the first trailing
 * argument, and all arguments after that (regardless of whether they start
 * with dashes) will also be considered trailing arguments.  Additionally, if
 * an argument of "--" is provided by itself, then it will serve to mark as the
 * end of the named arguments, and any arguments provided after that will be
 * considered unnamed trailing arguments.
 */
package com.unboundid.util.args;