During EuroLLVM binutils BoF, the assistance raised the problem of non-human friendly -help output of binutils. This is a tentative fix that focuses on llvm-nm output, based on Category Filtering.
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I don't think a test for every option is wise, but could you paste the output of the help text with your change applied, please, so I can review it easily?
tools/llvm-nm/llvm-nm.cpp | ||
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62 | I've not experimented with this, but do you need to put a category for the positional arguments? | |
99 | Do aliases need a category or do they inherit their base one? |
% ./bin/llvm-nm --help OVERVIEW: llvm symbol table dumper USAGE: llvm-nm [options] <input files> --s Dump only symbols from this segment and section name, Mach-O only OPTIONS: Generic Options: -help - Display available options (-help-hidden for more) -help-list - Display list of available options (-help-list-hidden for more) -version - Display the version of this program llvm-nm options: -B - Alias for --format=bsd -P - Alias for --format=posix -add-dyldinfo - Add symbols from the dyldinfo not already in the symbol table, Mach-O only -arch=<string> - architecture(s) from a Mach-O file to dump -debug-syms - Show all symbols, even debugger only -defined-only - Show only defined symbols -demangle - Demangle C++ symbol names -dyldinfo-only - Show only symbols from the dyldinfo, Mach-O only -dynamic - Display the dynamic symbols instead of normal symbols. -extern-only - Show only external symbols -format=<value> - Specify output format =bsd - BSD format =sysv - System V format =posix - POSIX.2 format =darwin - Darwin -m format -just-symbol-name - Print just the symbol's name -m - Alias for --format=darwin -no-demangle - Don't demangle symbol names -no-dyldinfo - Don't add any symbols from the dyldinfo, Mach-O only -no-llvm-bc - Disable LLVM bitcode reader -no-sort - Show symbols in order encountered -no-weak - Show only non-weak symbols -numeric-sort - Sort symbols by address -portability - Alias for --format=posix -print-armap - Print the archive map -print-file-name - Precede each symbol with the object file it came from -print-size - Show symbol size instead of address -radix=<value> - Radix (o/d/x) for printing symbol Values =d - decimal =o - octal =x - hexadecimal -reverse-sort - Sort in reverse order -s=<string> - Dump only symbols from this segment and section name, Mach-O only -size-sort - Sort symbols by size -undefined-only - Show only undefined symbols -x - Print symbol entry in hex, Mach-O only Pass @FILE as argument to read options from FILE.
Thanks for the help text. I think we could add a simple test actually. It would test that "Generic Options:" and "llvm-nm Options:" are printed, but not "General Options:" (I think that's the name given to the irrelevant LLVM options, but I could be wrong).
Regarding the -help option in llvm-readobj+llvm-objdump, you may want to chime in in https://reviews.llvm.org/D59746
alias don"t need to be marked as part of a category, this makes the diff shorter. Same for positional argument. New output:
OVERVIEW: llvm symbol table dumper USAGE: llvm-nm [options] <input files> --s Dump only symbols from this segment and section name, Mach-O only OPTIONS: Generic Options: -help - Display available options (-help-hidden for more) -help-list - Display list of available options (-help-list-hidden for more) -version - Display the version of this program llvm-nm Options: -B - Alias for --format=bsd -P - Alias for --format=posix -add-dyldinfo - Add symbols from the dyldinfo not already in the symbol table, Mach-O only -arch=<string> - architecture(s) from a Mach-O file to dump -debug-syms - Show all symbols, even debugger only -defined-only - Show only defined symbols -demangle - Demangle C++ symbol names -dyldinfo-only - Show only symbols from the dyldinfo, Mach-O only -dynamic - Display the dynamic symbols instead of normal symbols. -extern-only - Show only external symbols -format=<value> - Specify output format =bsd - BSD format =sysv - System V format =posix - POSIX.2 format =darwin - Darwin -m format -just-symbol-name - Print just the symbol's name -m - Alias for --format=darwin -no-demangle - Don't demangle symbol names -no-dyldinfo - Don't add any symbols from the dyldinfo, Mach-O only -no-llvm-bc - Disable LLVM bitcode reader -no-sort - Show symbols in order encountered -no-weak - Show only non-weak symbols -numeric-sort - Sort symbols by address -print-armap - Print the archive map -print-file-name - Precede each symbol with the object file it came from -print-size - Show symbol size instead of address -radix=<value> - Radix (o/d/x) for printing symbol Values =d - decimal =o - octal =x - hexadecimal -reverse-sort - Sort in reverse order -size-sort - Sort symbols by size -undefined-only - Show only undefined symbols -x - Print symbol entry in hex, Mach-O only Pass @FILE as argument to read options from FILE.
Note the USAGE: llvm-nm [options] <input files> --s Dump only symbols from this segment and section name, Mach-O only line, which is not perfect. That's due to the -s flag which is flagged as a positional argument, because it takes two arguments.
I let it as is, I may invest time in the future to fix the real source of the problem.
Question: instead of having -s require two argument, we could require one argument and split on space character, or comma?
Splitting on a character would make a lot of sense. Most tools use '=' or similar for multi-string arguments. However, if there is a Mach-O version of llvm-nm that inspired this option, we should be compatible with that if at all possible.
test/tools/llvm-nm/help.test | ||
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1 | Do an --implicit-check-not="General Options:" here to show that we don't have the old options. I'd also use --help, rather than -help, since that is closer to the norm. |
Splitting on a character would make a lot of sense. Most tools use '=' or similar for multi-string arguments.
Leaving that for another commit, that's not directly related to this review.
test/tools/llvm-nm/help.test | ||
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1 | I'd be surprised if this test passed currently...! The --implicit-check-not command should be for FileCheck: https://llvm.org/docs/CommandGuide/FileCheck.html |
Do an --implicit-check-not="General Options:" here to show that we don't have the old options. I'd also use --help, rather than -help, since that is closer to the norm.