Help with flag format #2320

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1. gmonk

   added

   kind/questionsomeone asking a questionsomeone asking a question

   area/v2relates to / is being considered for v2relates to / is being considered for v2

   status/triagemaintainers still need to look into thismaintainers still need to look into this

   on Apr 28, 2026
2. yxshee commented on Oct 31, 2026

   

   yxshee

   on Oct 31, 2026

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   The repeated part is on purpose. In v3, flags that can be given more than once (StringSliceFlag, IntSliceFlag, map flags and so on) get the flag's names repeated in brackets in help, e.g. --interface string, -i string [ --interface string, -i string ], to show that you can repeat them. It comes from the default cli.FlagStringer.

   If you want the v2 look back, wrap the default stringer and drop that suffix:

   def := cli.FlagStringer
   cli.FlagStringer = func(f cli.Flag) string {
   	s := def(f)
   	if mv, ok := f.(cli.DocGenerationMultiValueFlag); ok && mv.IsMultiValueFlag() {
   		names, usage, _ := strings.Cut(s, "\t")
   		names, _, _ = strings.Cut(names, " [ ")
   		return names + "\t" + usage
   	}
   	return s
   }

   With that, v3.14.0 prints --interface string, -i string Select active interface to use.

   The other difference, string instead of value, comes from the flag's type name. You can override it per flag by putting the placeholder in backticks in Usage, for example Usage: "Select the active interface `value`".

   To change a single flag instead of all of them, call SetStringer on it.

   (This one is about v3, so the area/v2 label looks off.)