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Fix -h and -help flags to show help instead of requiring arguments #683

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Fix -h and -help flags to show help instead of requiring arguments #683

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cf8bfde
Initial plan
Copilot Jan 31, 2026
f2eab74
Initial planning for -h and -? help flag fixes
Copilot Jan 31, 2026
e55081d
Fix sqlcmd -h and -help flags to show help
Copilot Jan 31, 2026
a5ee4e8
Fix trailing whitespace and restore NOTICE.md
Copilot Jan 31, 2026
63c01b1
Address code review feedback - remove extra blank lines and add test
Copilot Jan 31, 2026
28d5857
Consume non-numeric, non-flag arguments after -h when showing help
Copilot Feb 2, 2026
3ac2b0f
Merge branch 'main' into copilot/fix-sqlcmd-help-issues
dlevy-msft-sql Feb 5, 2026
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60 changes: 60 additions & 0 deletions cmd/sqlcmd/sqlcmd.go
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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -294,6 +294,9 @@ func Execute(version string) {
// We need to rewrite the arguments to add -i and -v in front of each space-delimited value to be Cobra-friendly.
// For flags like -r we need to inject the default value if the user omits it
func convertOsArgs(args []string) (cargs []string) {
// Pre-process to handle special help flag cases
args = preprocessHelpFlags(args)

flag := ""
first := true
for i, a := range args {
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -323,6 +326,63 @@ func convertOsArgs(args []string) (cargs []string) {
return
}

// preprocessHelpFlags handles special cases for help flags to improve user experience:
// 1. Converts "-help" to "--help" since "-help" would be parsed as "-h elp"
// 2. Converts "-h" without an argument to "-?" to show help, since many users expect
// "-h" to show help (common in other CLI tools), even though in sqlcmd "-h" is
// traditionally used to set header count. When "-h" has a following number, it's
// left as-is to maintain compatibility with the traditional behavior.
func preprocessHelpFlags(args []string) []string {
result := make([]string, 0, len(args))
for i := 0; i < len(args); i++ {
arg := args[i]

// Convert "-help" to "--help"
if arg == "-help" {
result = append(result, "--help")
continue
}

// Handle "-h" without an argument: convert to "-?" to show help
if arg == "-h" {
// Check if next arg exists
hasNextArg := i+1 < len(args)
nextIsNumber := false
nextIsFlag := false
if hasNextArg {
nextArg := args[i+1]
// Check if next arg looks like a number (including negative numbers)
// This must be checked before checking if it's a flag, because
// negative numbers start with '-'
_, err := strconv.Atoi(nextArg)
nextIsNumber = err == nil

// Check if next arg is a flag (starts with '-' but is not a number)
if !nextIsNumber && len(nextArg) > 0 && nextArg[0] == '-' {
nextIsFlag = true
}
}

// If -h is followed by a number, keep it as-is (header count)
// Otherwise, convert to -? (show help) and consume any non-numeric, non-flag argument
if !nextIsNumber {
result = append(result, "-?")
// If there was a following non-numeric, non-flag argument, consume it
// (Don't consume flags, as they should be processed normally)
if hasNextArg && !nextIsFlag {
i++
}
} else {
result = append(result, arg)
}
continue
}

result = append(result, arg)
}
return result
}

// If args[i] is the given flag and args[i+1] is another flag, returns the value to append after the flag
func checkDefaultValue(args []string, i int) (val string) {
flags := map[rune]string{
Expand Down
39 changes: 39 additions & 0 deletions cmd/sqlcmd/sqlcmd_test.go
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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -72,6 +72,15 @@ func TestValidCommandLineToArgsConversion(t *testing.T) {
{[]string{"-h", "2", "-?"}, func(args SQLCmdArguments) bool {
return args.Help && args.Headers == 2
}},
{[]string{"-h"}, func(args SQLCmdArguments) bool {
return args.Help
}},
{[]string{"-help"}, func(args SQLCmdArguments) bool {
return args.Help
}},
{[]string{"-h", "abc"}, func(args SQLCmdArguments) bool {
return args.Help
}},
{[]string{"-u", "-A"}, func(args SQLCmdArguments) bool {
return args.UnicodeOutputFile && args.DedicatedAdminConnection
}},
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -584,6 +593,36 @@ func TestConvertOsArgs(t *testing.T) {
[]string{"-X", "-k2"},
[]string{"-X", "0", "-k2"},
},
{
"-h without argument converts to -? for help",
[]string{"-h"},
[]string{"-?"},
},
{
"-h with number keeps -h for headers",
[]string{"-h", "5"},
[]string{"-h", "5"},
},
{
"-h with negative number keeps -h for headers",
[]string{"-h", "-1"},
[]string{"-h", "-1"},
},
{
"-help converts to --help",
[]string{"-help"},
[]string{"--help"},
},
{
"-h followed by flag converts to -? for help",
[]string{"-h", "-E"},
[]string{"-?", "-E"},
},
{
"-h followed by non-numeric converts to -? for help (consuming the non-numeric arg)",
[]string{"-h", "abc"},
[]string{"-?"},
},
}
for _, c := range tests {
t.Run(c.name, func(t *testing.T) {
Expand Down
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