[FFmpeg-devel] [PATCH] avfilter: Handle =help to show Filter options documentation

[Clément Bœsch]

On Sat, Mar 30, 2013 at 03:13:46PM +0100, Michael Niedermayer wrote:
> On Sat, Mar 30, 2013 at 03:00:45PM +0100, Clément Bœsch wrote:
> > On Sat, Mar 30, 2013 at 02:47:48AM +0100, Michael Niedermayer wrote:
> > [...]
> > > > But why the user should know that -vf filter=help will show help,
> > > > instead of setting the arguments for the filter as it could be
> > > > reasonably expected?
> > > 
> > > its what the user actually tried who asked for it IIRC, its what i
> > > would try probably
> > > its what some other applications support
> > > try qemu for a list of cpus its
> > > -cpu '?'
> > > or
> > > mplayer -vo help
> > > 
> > 
> > OTOH the first users reflex with an unknown app is to run ./app -h or
> > ./app --help.
> 
> which outputs several screenfulls of stuff, not containing a match
> for lets say "curves"
> 

That's the reason I proposed to improve and use an improved version of
what's currently done in the ffmpeg tool:

  Getting help:
      -h      -- print basic options
      -h long -- print more options
      -h full -- print all options (including all format and codec specific options, very long)

...and drop the current useless option dump.

Maybe:

  % ./ffbla -h
  Getting help:
      -h basic     -- print basic tool options
      -h full      -- print all options (including all format and codec specific options, very long)
      -h <section> -- print all options for a given section. Available sections:
          codecs
          devices
          filters
          formats
      -h <section>=<name> -- getting specific help on a section.
                             Ex: -h filter=mandelbrot
                                 -h codec=libx264
                                 -h format=mp4
  %


-- 
Clément B.
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