parse-options: introduce OPT_HIDDEN_GROUP

Hidden options are not shown by `git <cmd> -h`, but are still shown by `git <cmd> --help-all`. If there are a lot of hidden options or if they don't belong to the same categories as other options, there is currently no way to properly group them. Using `OPT_GROUP("Foo")` means that "Foo" will always be shown which we don't want if that group contains only hidden options. To provide a way to have groups shown only when hidden options are shown, let's implement an OPT_HIDDEN_GROUP macro. To test this new macro, let's also improve `test-tool parse-options` and test its output with `--help-all`. Signed-off-by: Christian Couder <chriscool@tuxfamily.org> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

Christian Couder committed Jul 16, 2026 at 18:55 UTC e8529cc8da9437e6b7bf958192ca0984103b43c1
4 files changed +35 -3
parse-options.c
+2 -2
@@ -1404,6 +1404,8 @@ static enum parse_opt_result usage_with_options_internal(struct parse_opt_ctx_t
1404
1405 if (opts->type == OPTION_SUBCOMMAND)
1406 continue;
1407 + if (!full && (opts->flags & PARSE_OPT_HIDDEN))
1408 + continue;
1409 if (opts->type == OPTION_GROUP) {
1410 fputc('\n', outfile);
1411 need_newline = 0;
@@ -1411,8 +1413,6 @@ static enum parse_opt_result usage_with_options_internal(struct parse_opt_ctx_t
1413 fprintf(outfile, "%s\n", _(opts->help));
1414 continue;
1415 }
1414 - if (!full && (opts->flags & PARSE_OPT_HIDDEN))
1415 - continue;
1416
1417 if (need_newline) {
1418 fputc('\n', outfile);
parse-options.h
+5
@@ -236,6 +236,11 @@ struct option {
236 .type = OPTION_GROUP, \
237 .help = (h), \
238 }
239 +#define OPT_HIDDEN_GROUP(h) { \
240 + .type = OPTION_GROUP, \
241 + .help = (h), \
242 + .flags = PARSE_OPT_HIDDEN, \
243 +}
244 #define OPT_BIT(s, l, v, h, b) OPT_BIT_F(s, l, v, h, b, 0)
245 #define OPT_BITOP(s, l, v, h, set, clear) { \
246 .type = OPTION_BITOP, \
t/helper/test-parse-options.c
+4
@@ -209,6 +209,10 @@ int cmd__parse_options(int argc, const char **argv)
209 OPT_GROUP("Alias"),
210 OPT_STRING('A', "alias-source", &string, "string", "get a string"),
211 OPT_ALIAS('Z', "alias-target", "alias-source"),
212 + OPT_HIDDEN_GROUP("Hidden options"),
213 + OPT_HIDDEN_BOOL(0, "hidden-bool", &boolean, "get a boolean"),
214 + OPT_INTEGER_F('k', "hidden-integer", &integer, "get a integer",
215 + PARSE_OPT_HIDDEN),
216 OPT_END(),
217 };
218 int ret = 0;
t/t0040-parse-options.sh
+24 -1
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ test_description='our own option parser'
7
8 . ./test-lib.sh
9
10 -cat >expect <<\EOF
10 +cat >expect-part1 <<\EOF
11 usage: test-tool parse-options <options>
12
13 A helper function for the parse-options API.
@@ -41,6 +41,9 @@ String options
41 --[no-]string2 <str> get another string
42 --[no-]st <st> get another string (pervert ordering)
43 -o <str> get another string
44 +EOF
45 +
46 +cat >expect-part2 <<\EOF
47 --longhelp help text of this entry
48 spans multiple lines
49 --[no-]list <str> add str to list
@@ -67,12 +70,32 @@ Alias
70
71 EOF
72
73 +cat >expect-noop <<\EOF
74 + --[no-]obsolete no-op (backward compatibility)
75 +EOF
76 +
77 +cat >expect-hidden <<\EOF
78 +Hidden options
79 + --[no-]hidden-bool get a boolean
80 + -k, --[no-]hidden-integer <n>
81 + get a integer
82 +
83 +EOF
84 +
85 test_expect_success 'test help' '
86 + cat expect-part1 expect-part2 >expect &&
87 test_must_fail test-tool parse-options -h >output 2>output.err &&
88 test_must_be_empty output.err &&
89 test_cmp expect output
90 '
91
92 +test_expect_success 'test --help-all shows hidden group and options' '
93 + cat expect-part1 expect-noop expect-part2 expect-hidden >expect-help-all &&
94 + test_must_fail test-tool parse-options --help-all >output 2>output.err &&
95 + test_must_be_empty output.err &&
96 + test_cmp expect-help-all output
97 +'
98 +
99 mv expect expect.err
100
101 check () {