API method `helping`

Determine if help was requested by returning zero to n commands if help is requested or null otherwise.

• params ([object] | object)
  The parameter object parsed from arguments, an object in flatten mode or an array in extended mode, optional.

Description

This method is commonly used conjointly with the help method. It provides an indication wether or not help was requested and the command to inject to help.

Example

The workflow is to parse the arguments to get the extracted data, to create a condition to get the command associated with help and to print the help by passing the returned command:

const shell = require('shell')
const app = shell({
  name: 'server',
  description: 'Manage a web server',
  commands: {
    'start': {
      description: 'Start a web server',
      options: {
        'host': {shortcut: 'h', description: 'Web server listen host'},
        'port': {shortcut: 'p', type: 'integer', description: 'Web server listen port'}
      }
    }
  }
});
const params = app.parse()
if(let command = app.helping(params)){
  const help = app.help(command)
  process.stdout.write(help)
  process.exit()
}

Considering the above example, the commands ./myapp help ./myapp --help and ./myapp -h print the application help. The commands ./myapp help start, ./myapp start --help and ./myapp start -h print the help of the start command.