Stand-alone executable with nested commands not getting triggered

[andygrunwald]

The programm

import { Command } from 'commander';
const program = new Command();

program.name('pm')
const brew = program.command('brew').description('Brew your drinks');;
brew.command('tea', 'Brew your tea');
brew.command('coffee', 'Brew your coffee');

program.parse(process.argv);

The file structure:

ls -l src

- index.ts
- pm-brew-coffee.ts
- pm-brew-tea.ts
- pm-brew.ts

pm-brew-coffee.ts looks like

console.log("pm-brew-coffee");

The call node -r ts-node/register src/index.ts brew coffeeends up with

/my/app/path/node_modules/commander/lib/command.js:1175
    throw new Error(executableMissing);
          ^
Error: 'brew-coffee' does not exist
 - if 'coffee' is not meant to be an executable command, remove description parameter from '.command()' and use '.description()' instead
 - if the default executable name is not suitable, use the executableFile option to supply a custom name or path
 - no directory for search for local subcommand, use .executableDir() to supply a custom directory
    at Command._checkForMissingExecutable (/my/app/path/node_modules/commander/lib/command.js:1175:11)
    at ChildProcess.<anonymous> (/my/app/path/node_modules/commander/lib/command.js:1306:14)
    at ChildProcess.emit (node:events:507:28)
    at ChildProcess.emit (node:domain:489:12)
    at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (node:internal/child_process:292:12)
    at onErrorNT (node:internal/child_process:484:16)
    at processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:90:21)

Even if I rename the file pm-brew-coffee.ts to brew-coffee.ts, it throws the same error.

I would have expected that the file pm-brew-coffee.ts is getting executed and pm-brew-coffee is shown.

Am I am missing something?

[shadowspawn]

This declares a built-in command named brew:

const brew = program.command('brew').description('Brew your drinks');

For a stand-alone command implemented in pm-brew.ts you want:

const brew = program.command('brew', 'Brew your drinks');

and you would add the tea and coffee subcommands in pm-brew.ts not in index.ts.

[shadowspawn]

The confusion between commands with an action handler and ones implemented as stand-alone executable files was more common before the README got updated, but can still cause confusion: #938