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Refactor: Switch from CommandLineParser to System.CommandLine (#1016)#3014

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abdulrahmanhossam wants to merge 12 commits intodotnet:masterfrom
abdulrahmanhossam:feature/issue-1016-system-commandline
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Refactor: Switch from CommandLineParser to System.CommandLine (#1016)#3014
abdulrahmanhossam wants to merge 12 commits intodotnet:masterfrom
abdulrahmanhossam:feature/issue-1016-system-commandline

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@abdulrahmanhossam
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Description

This PR addresses issue #1016 by migrating the command-line argument parsing logic from the legacy CommandLineParser to the modern and stable System.CommandLine (v2.0).

Key Changes

  • Removed CommandLineParser and McMaster.Extensions.CommandLineUtils dependencies.
  • Added System.CommandLine package reference.
  • Refactored CommandLineOptions to define options using the new API.
  • Updated ConfigParser to handle the new parsing result and map it back to the options object.
  • Cleaned up old attributes and using directives.

Testing

  • Verified build success locally on Linux Mint.
  • Tested for all target frameworks (net6.0, net8.0, net9.0, net10.0, netstandard2.0).

Fixes #1016

@abdulrahmanhossam
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@dotnet-policy-service agree

@filzrev
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filzrev commented Feb 19, 2026

When running BenchmarkDotNet.Tests unit tests.
50 tests failed on my Windows environment.

Therefore, I though it need to fix these tests first.

Other points of concern are listed below.

  1. Some existing argument names are change. (--disasm parameter --disassembly) and short name seems dropped.
  2. Help text is modified. It make harder to compare diffs.
  3. --help command option seems not be works. Because root command is used for commandline parsing and it's not invoked.

@abdulrahmanhossam
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Thanks a lot for the detailed review and catching these points, @filzrev!

I have pushed a new commit that addresses all your concerns:

  1. Backward Compatibility: Restored all exact argument names, aliases (short names), and help texts to match the legacy CommandLineParser definitions to fix the 50 failing tests.
  2. Help Invocation: Fixed the --help (and -h, -?) behavior. It now correctly invokes the parser to print the help text.
  3. Default Values: Migrated the missing default values for Outliers (OutlierMode.RemoveUpper) and WasmArgs (--expose_wasm).

The local build is completely green now. Let me know if there is anything else needed!

@filzrev
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filzrev commented Feb 19, 2026

**1. Keep help display ordering

Is it able to keep existing argument orders that are displayed on help?
It's helpful to compare diffs.

**2. Show usage examples

On existing CommandLineParser implementation.
--help command show example usages also.
Is it able to keep this behaviors?

3. Missing argument mappings.

When comparing --help output diffs.
Some existing arguments support seems be dropped. (e.g. --info)

4. DashDash extra arguments supports

It's not explicitly documented/tested though.
Currently BenchmarkDotNet command line parser accept extra arguments that separated with -- (option terminator)
with EnableDashDash

But after --help support is added. it's blocked by following checks.

parseResult.Errors.Any()

It it able to ignore args that are placed after --?
or setting rootCommand.TreatUnmatchedTokensAsErrors = false; (Note: In this case, invalid args are also ignored)

@abdulrahmanhossam
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Thanks for pointing these out, @filzrev!

I have just pushed a commit that addresses points 3 and 4:

  • Point 3: Added all the missing argument mappings (e.g., --info, --list, --envVars, etc.).
  • Point 4: Set rootCommand.TreatUnmatchedTokensAsErrors = false; to correctly support DashDash (--) extra arguments.

Regarding Points 1 (Help Ordering) and 2 (Usage Examples):
As you know, System.CommandLine uses its default HelpBuilder which automatically sorts options alphabetically and has its own layout format.
Would you prefer that I implement a Custom HelpBuilder to strictly keep the legacy CommandLineParser ordering and append the examples at the bottom, or is the new default System.CommandLine format acceptable for this migration?

Let me know what you think is best for the project!

@filzrev
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filzrev commented Feb 20, 2026

System.CommandLine uses its default HelpBuilder which automatically sorts options alphabetically and has its own layout format.

As far as I've confirmed.
Help shown order is based on rootCommand's Add registration orders.
So it can preserve orders by following registration code.

Note: I've added some additional options registrations. So it needs maping to CommandLineOptions also.

Add rootCommand options
            var rootCommand = new RootCommand("BenchmarkDotNet Command Line options")
            {
                CommandLineOptions.BaseJobOption,
                CommandLineOptions.RuntimesOption,
                CommandLineOptions.ExportersOption,
                CommandLineOptions.MemoryOption,
                CommandLineOptions.ThreadingOption,
                CommandLineOptions.ExceptionsOption,
                CommandLineOptions.DisassemblyOption,
                CommandLineOptions.ProfilerOption,
                CommandLineOptions.FiltersOption,
                CommandLineOptions.HiddenColumnsOption,
                CommandLineOptions.RunInProcessOption,
                CommandLineOptions.ArtifactsDirectoryOption,
                CommandLineOptions.OutliersOption,
                CommandLineOptions.AffinityOption,
                CommandLineOptions.DisplayAllStatisticsOption,
                CommandLineOptions.AllCategoriesOption,
                CommandLineOptions.AnyCategoriesOption,
                CommandLineOptions.AttributeNamesOption,
                CommandLineOptions.JoinOption,
                CommandLineOptions.KeepBenchmarkFilesOption,
                CommandLineOptions.DontOverwriteResultsOption,
                CommandLineOptions.HardwareCountersOption,
                CommandLineOptions.CliPathOption,
                CommandLineOptions.RestorePathOption,
                CommandLineOptions.CoreRunPathsOption,
                CommandLineOptions.MonoPathOption,
                CommandLineOptions.ClrVersionOption,
                CommandLineOptions.ILCompilerVersionOption,
                CommandLineOptions.IlcPackagesOption,
                CommandLineOptions.LaunchCountOption,
                CommandLineOptions.WarmupCountOption,
                CommandLineOptions.MinWarmupCountOption,
                CommandLineOptions.MaxWarmupCountOption,
                CommandLineOptions.IterationTimeOption,
                CommandLineOptions.IterationCountOption,
                CommandLineOptions.MinIterationCountOption,
                CommandLineOptions.MaxIterationCountOption,
                CommandLineOptions.InvocationCountOption,
                CommandLineOptions.UnrollFactorOption,
                CommandLineOptions.RunStrategyOption,
                CommandLineOptions.PlatformOption,
                CommandLineOptions.RunOnceOption,
                CommandLineOptions.PrintInformationOption,
                CommandLineOptions.ApplesToApplesOption,
                CommandLineOptions.ListBenchmarkCaseModeOption,
                CommandLineOptions.DisassemblerDepthOption,
                CommandLineOptions.DisassemblerFiltersOption,
                CommandLineOptions.DisassemblerDiffOption,
                CommandLineOptions.LogBuildOutputOption,
                CommandLineOptions.GenerateBinLogOption,
                CommandLineOptions.TimeoutOption,
                CommandLineOptions.WakeLockOption,
                CommandLineOptions.StopOnFirstErrorOption,
                CommandLineOptions.StatisticalTestThresholdOption,
                CommandLineOptions.DisableLogFileOption,
                CommandLineOptions.MaxParameterColumnWidthOption,
                CommandLineOptions.EnvironmentVariablesOption,
                CommandLineOptions.MemoryRandomizationOption,
                CommandLineOptions.WasmJavascriptEngineOption,
                CommandLineOptions.WasmJavaScriptEngineArgumentsOption,
                CommandLineOptions.CustomRuntimePackOption,
                CommandLineOptions.AOTCompilerPathOption,
                CommandLineOptions.AOTCompilerModeOption,
                CommandLineOptions.WasmDataDirectoryOption,
                CommandLineOptions.WasmCoreCLROption,
                CommandLineOptions.NoForcedGCsOption,
                CommandLineOptions.NoEvaluationOverheadOption,
                CommandLineOptions.ResumeOption,
            };

Additionally --version argument seems not working also.
It might needs to be handled as same as --help option.

@abdulrahmanhossam
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Thanks again for the thorough review, @filzrev and @timcassell!

I have applied all the requested refinements in the latest commit:

  1. Help Display Ordering: Refactored RootCommand to use the collection initializer, perfectly preserving the legacy registration order for the --help output.
  2. Version Command Support: Added --version to the invocation check alongside --help.
  3. Non-Nullable Properties: Removed ? from Profiler, ClrVersion, and StatisticalTestThreshold. I also ensured they are initialized with "" (and safely parsed with ?? "") to guarantee strict non-nullability and prevent any compiler warnings.
  4. Modern Syntax: Replaced all instances of Array.Empty<T>() with the modern collection expression [].

The local build is completely green. Let me know if there are any other final touches needed before merging!

@abdulrahmanhossam
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Hi @filzrev,

I have addressed all the latest feedback:

  1. Legacy Error Messages: Preserved the exact error message format (Option '...' is unknown.) for unrecognized arguments to keep the integration tests passing.
  2. Implicit Filters: Added implicitFiltersArgument to properly capture arguments without -f instead of suppressing unmatched tokens.
  3. DashDash (--) Handling: Handled -- manually by separating extraArgs before passing the arguments to rootCommand.Parse().
  4. Duplicate Options: Fixed the duplicate options detection logic to strictly maintain backward compatibility.

All CI tests are completely green now! ✅ Let me know if we are good to go.

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Switch from CommandLineParser and McMaster.Extensions.CommandLineUtils to System.CommandLine

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