Using command-line flags

The flag package makes it simple to add command-line flag arguments to a Go application. It has a few shortcomings—you tend to duplicate a lot of code in order to add shorthand versions of flags, and they're ordered alphabetically from the help prompt. There are a number of third-party libraries that attempt to address these shortcomings, but this chapter will focus on the standard library version and not on those libraries.

How to do it...

These steps cover writing and running your application:

1. From your Terminal or console application,createa new directory called~/projects/go-programming-cookbook/chapter2/flags.
2. Navigate to this directory.
3. Run the following command:

          $ go mod init github.com/PacktPublishing/Go-Programming-Cookbook-Second-Edition/chapter2/flags

        

You should see a file calledgo.modthat contains the following:

module...