Options options = new Options(); options.addOption("h", "help", false, "Show help"); Option nameOption = Option.builder("n") .longOpt("name") .desc("Name argument") .hasArg() .argName("name") .build(); CommandLineParser parser = new DefaultParser(); CommandLine cmd = parser.parse(options, args); String name = cmd.getOptionValue("name"); import org.apache.commons.cli.*; public class CommandLineApp { public static void main(String[] args) { Options options = new Options(); options.addOption("h", "help", false, "Show help"); options.addOption(Option.builder("n") .longOpt("name") .desc("Name argument") .hasArg() .argName("name") .build()); CommandLineParser parser = new DefaultParser(); try { CommandLine cmd = parser.parse(options, args); if (cmd.hasOption("h")) { HelpFormatter formatter = new HelpFormatter(); formatter.printHelp("command-line-app", options); } else { String name = cmd.getOptionValue("name"); System.out.println("Hello, " + name + "!"); } } catch (ParseException e) { System.out.println("Error parsing command line arguments: " + e.getMessage()); } } }