Ability to hide commands from usage/help text

Added the ability to have hidden commands that cobra will still run as intended, however they won't show up in any usage/help text

adding internal field to command

private is a better name

hiding private commands in default help/usage

opting for 'hidden' over 'private'

updating all 'help command' checks to exclude hidden commands

updating how commands are displayed in usage/help text by updating/adding some methods. added tests for hidden/deprecated commands

making command hidden when testing hidden command execution

test now leverage the included suite and are much less custom. also removed deprecation tests, once I discovered them in cobra_test.go

updating hidden command test to be more reliable

removing unnecessary () when checking len(c.Deprecated)

updating command comments to be godoc friendly

cobra_test.go

@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ var _ = os.Stderr
 var tp, te, tt, t1, tr []string
 var rootPersPre, echoPre, echoPersPre, timesPersPre []string
 var flagb1, flagb2, flagb3, flagbr, flagbp bool
-var flags1, flags2a, flags2b, flags3 string
+var flags1, flags2a, flags2b, flags3, outs string
 var flagi1, flagi2, flagi3, flagir int
 var globalFlag1 bool
 var flagEcho, rootcalled bool
@@ -28,6 +28,16 @@ var versionUsed int
 const strtwoParentHelp = "help message for parent flag strtwo"
 const strtwoChildHelp = "help message for child flag strtwo"
 
+var cmdHidden = &Command{
+	Use:   "hide [secret string to print]",
+	Short: "Print anything to screen (if command is known)",
+	Long:  `an absolutely utterly useless command for testing.`,
+	Run: func(cmd *Command, args []string) {
+		outs = "hidden"
+	},
+	Hidden: true,
+}
+
 var cmdPrint = &Command{
 	Use:   "print [string to print]",
 	Short: "Print anything to the screen",

command.go

@@ -51,6 +51,8 @@ type Command struct {
 	BashCompletionFunction string
 	// Is this command deprecated and should print this string when used?
 	Deprecated string
+	// Is this command hidden and should NOT show up in the list of available commands?
+	Hidden bool
 	// Full set of flags
 	flags *flag.FlagSet
 	// Set of flags childrens of this command will inherit
@@ -256,9 +258,9 @@ Aliases:
 {{end}}{{if .HasExample}}
 
 Examples:
-{{ .Example }}{{end}}{{ if .HasNonHelpSubCommands}}
+{{ .Example }}{{end}}{{ if .HasAvailableSubCommands}}
 
-Available Commands: {{range .Commands}}{{if (not .IsHelpCommand)}}
+Available Commands: {{range .Commands}}{{if .IsAvailableCommand}}
   {{rpad .Name .NamePadding }} {{.Short}}{{end}}{{end}}{{end}}{{ if .HasLocalFlags}}
 
 Flags:
@@ -850,42 +852,65 @@ func (c *Command) HasSubCommands() bool {
 	return len(c.commands) > 0
 }
 
+// IsAvailableCommand determines if a command is available as a non-help command
+// (this includes all non deprecated/hidden commands)
+func (c *Command) IsAvailableCommand() bool {
+
+	// a command is 'available' if it is runnable and is not deprecated/hidden
+	return c.Runnable() && len(c.Deprecated) == 0 && !c.Hidden
+}
+
+// IsHelpCommand determines if a command is a 'help' command; a help command is
+// determined by the fact that it is NOT runnable/hidden/deprecated, and has no
+// sub commands that are runnable/hidden/deprecated
 func (c *Command) IsHelpCommand() bool {
-	if c.Runnable() {
+
+	// if a command is runnable, deprecated, or hidden it is not a 'help' command
+	if c.Runnable() || len(c.Deprecated) != 0 || c.Hidden {
 		return false
 	}
+
+	// if any non-help sub commands are found, the command is not a 'help' command
 	for _, sub := range c.commands {
-		if len(sub.Deprecated) != 0 {
-			continue
-		}
 		if !sub.IsHelpCommand() {
 			return false
 		}
 	}
+
+	// the command either has no sub commands, or no non-help sub commands
 	return true
 }
 
+// HasHelpSubCommands determines if a command has any avilable 'help' sub commands
+// that need to be shown in the usage/help default template under 'additional help
+// topics'
 func (c *Command) HasHelpSubCommands() bool {
+
+	// return true on the first found available 'help' sub command
 	for _, sub := range c.commands {
-		if len(sub.Deprecated) != 0 {
-			continue
-		}
 		if sub.IsHelpCommand() {
 			return true
 		}
 	}
+
+	// the command either has no sub commands, or no available 'help' sub commands
 	return false
 }
 
-func (c *Command) HasNonHelpSubCommands() bool {
+// HasAvailableSubCommands determines if a command has available sub commands that
+// need to be shown in the usage/help default template under 'available commands'
+func (c *Command) HasAvailableSubCommands() bool {
+
+	// return true on the first found available (non deprecated/help/hidden)
+	// sub command
 	for _, sub := range c.commands {
-		if len(sub.Deprecated) != 0 {
-			continue
-		}
-		if !sub.IsHelpCommand() {
+		if sub.IsAvailableCommand() {
 			return true
 		}
 	}
+
+	// the command either has no sub comamnds, or no available (non deprecated/help/hidden)
+	// sub commands
 	return false
 }
 

command_test.go

@@ -5,6 +5,30 @@ import (
 	"testing"
 )
 
+// test to ensure hidden commands run as intended
+func TestHiddenCommandExecutes(t *testing.T) {
+
+	// ensure that outs does not already equal what the command will be setting it
+	// to, if it did this test would not actually be testing anything...
+	if outs == "hidden" {
+		t.Errorf("outs should NOT EQUAL hidden")
+	}
+
+	cmdHidden.Execute()
+
+	// upon running the command, the value of outs should now be 'hidden'
+	if outs != "hidden" {
+		t.Errorf("Hidden command failed to run!")
+	}
+}
+
+// test to ensure hidden commands do not show up in usage/help text
+func TestHiddenCommandIsHidden(t *testing.T) {
+	if cmdHidden.IsAvailableCommand() {
+		t.Errorf("Hidden command found!")
+	}
+}
+
 func TestStripFlags(t *testing.T) {
 	tests := []struct {
 		input  []string