History

0.9.4 (May 2017)

• Initial public release
• @Command annotation for command name and usage help message customization
• @Option and @Parameters annotations for named options and positional parameters
• fine-grained control over arity: number of option parameters
• built-in type converters
• customizable type conversion
• ANSI colors
• Help API for fine-grained usage help message customization
• run convenience method to invoke Runnable commands after parsing (superceded by execute in 4.0)

0.9.7 (Jun 2017)

• subcommands and nested sub-subcommands
• parser configuration to allow option overwriting
• parser configuration to allow unmatched arguments

0.9.8 (Aug 2017)

• API for registering subcommands declaratively with @Command(subcommands={...}) annotation
• API for usageHelp and versionHelp attributes on @Option

1.0.0 (Aug 2017)

• generate bash and zsh completion scripts
• Map options like -Dkey1=val1 -Dkey2=val2
• parser tracing for troubleshooting
• added call convenience method for Callable commands (superceded by execute in 4.0)

2.0.0 (Oct 2017)

• Groovy scripts can use picocli annotations
• added parseWithHandler convenience method (superceded by execute in 4.0)
• convenience methods run, call and parseWithHandler now work correctly for subcommands
• convenience methods run, call and parseWithHandler now automatically print help and version information when requested
• parser enhancement: positional arguments no longer need to follow options (any order is allowed)

2.1.0 (Nov 2017)

• @-files (argument files)
• multi-value boolean options (like -vvv)

2.2.0 (Dec 2017)

• @ParentCommand annotation allows subcommands to reference the parent command
• type converters for Java 7 (Path, etc) and Java 8 (java.time classes)
• option-specific type converters
• IVersionProvider
• initial Dependency Injection support (IFactory)

2.3.0 (Feb 2018)

• stopAtPositional and stopAtUnmatched parser configuration
• options with optional parameter now have "" empty string fallback value (if option specified without parameter)

3.0.0 (May 2018)

• programmatic API in addition to the annotations (CommandSpec, OptionSpec and PositionalParamSpec, ...)
• mixins for reuse
• standard help options
• built-in Help command
• @Unmatched annotation
• Stdout or Stderr
• Exit Code Support

3.1.0 (Jun 2018)

• command aliases

3.2.0 (Jul 2018)

• Dependency Injection support
• @Option and @Parameters-annotated methods
• JLine TAB completion
• ${DEFAULT-VALUE} and ${COMPLETION-CANDIDATES} variables in descriptions
• @Spec annotation for injecting the CommandSpec model into a command

3.3.0 (Jul 2018)

• offer suggestions for unmatched options

3.4.0 (Aug 2018)

• API for applications to output colors

3.5.0 (Aug 2018)

• masked interactive options for password

3.6.0 (Sep 2018)

• custom default providers
• define subcommands in @Command-annotated methods
• internationalization via resource bundles

3.7.0 (Oct 2018)

• GraalVm support via new module picocli-codegen
• JLine2 integration via picocli-shell-jline2 module
• improved parsing of quoted values

3.8.0 (Nov 2018)

• Mixin support in @Command methods

3.8.1 (Dec 2018)

• JCommander-style argument files

3.9.0 (Jan 2019)

• API for customizing the usage help message
• JLine3 integration via picocli-shell-jline3 module
• improved heuristics for enabling ANSI colors

4.0.0 (July 2019)

• picocli-codegen annotation processor for effortless GraalVM native images
• execute API:
  • exit codes
  • facilitates parser configuration
  • static run, call and parseWithHandlers bootstrap methods are now deprecated
• mutually exclusive options
• mutually dependent options
• nested repeatable argument groups
• variable interpolation (variable expansion) in annotation attributes
• negatable options
• custom parameter processing
• customizable fallback value for options with optional parameter (when option specified without parameter)
• auto-detect terminal width
• improved support for Chinese, Japanese and Korean usage help
• Spring Boot integration via picocli-spring-boot-starter module
• picocli is now a JPMS module
• Separate picocli-groovy module

4.1.0 (Nov 2019)

• built-in properties file-based default provider
• built-in generate-completion subcommand for generating bash/zsh completion scripts
• new API for creating custom usage help sections

4.1.2 (Dec 2019)

• integration with JLine 3.13.2: auto-completion showing descriptions

4.2.0 (Feb 2020)

• repeatable subcommands
• generate man pages, HTML and PDF documentation
• bash/zsh auto-completion for positional parameters
• show an entry for @file argument files in the options list

4.3.0 (May 2020)

• inherited options
• case-insensitive options and commands
• mixins can refer back to the command where they are used
• Automatic indexes for positional parameters
• show an entry for -- in the options list

4.4.0 (Jul 2020)

• Abbreviated options and commands
• built-in gen-manpage subcommand for generating documentation

4.5.0 (Aug 2020)

• Built-in ColorScheme styles for error text and stacktraces