Issue passing local flag to subcommand

[IvanRibakov]

I have a root command with persistent flag and a subcommand with a local flag. When executing subcommand, I seem to be unable to pass the local flag. No matter how I do it, I get Error: unknown flag:.

Here's the minimal example that reproduces my situation:

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"github.com/spf13/cobra"
)

var (
	testFlag string
	subFlag bool
	rootCmd = &cobra.Command{
		Use:   "root",
	}
)

func init() {
	rootCmd.PersistentFlags().StringVar(&testFlag, "rootFlag", "", "")

	subCmd := &cobra.Command{
		Use:   "subcommand",
	}
	subCmd.LocalFlags().BoolVar(&subFlag, "subFlag", false, "")
	subCmd.RunE = func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
		fmt.Println(testFlag)
		fmt.Println(subFlag)
		return nil
	}

	rootCmd.AddCommand(subCmd)
}

func main() {
	rootCmd.Execute()
}

All of the above invocations produce an error Error: unknown flag: --subFlag:

$ go run . subcommand --rootFlag blah --subFlag
$ go run . subcommand --subFlag --rootFlag blah
$ go run . --rootFlag blah subcommand --subFlag

Can someone please explain me what am I missing here?

[marckhouzam]

Hi @IvanRibakov.
Try using subCmd.Flags().BoolVar() instead of subCmd.LocalFlags().

I admit that I don't fully understand all these flag functions, but I use code I've seen work before.

[IvanRibakov]

Hi @marckhouzam,

subCmd.Flags() indeed works, but it sounds like a workaround to me that limits using flags with the same short version character on different levels.

I'd still argue that original problem is a bug, or at a very minimum, a gap in documentation.

[johnSchnake]

The docs use the Flags() function so they seem accurate; I am also not sure the fully history of the function origins but if you would like to add a note into the docs to disambiguate this I dont think there is any problem with that.

https://github.com/spf13/cobra/blob/main/user_guide.md#local-flags

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[niamster]

The docs use the Flags() function so they seem accurate; I am also not sure the fully history of the function origins but if you would like to add a note into the docs to disambiguate this I dont think there is any problem with that.

https://github.com/spf13/cobra/blob/main/user_guide.md#local-flags

Hi @johnSchnake

Does it make sense to update documentation and/or hide LocalFlags function to avoid confusion?
It seems like it does not work as intended

[niamster]

Hey folks 👋 I prepared a PR to clarify the documentation #2064
Please let me know if that works.
Thanks!