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Global flags marked as Local are still recognized after a subcommand #2208
Description
My urfave/cli version is
cli/v3 v3.4.1
Checklist
- Are you running the latest v3 release? The list of releases is here.
- Did you check the manual for your release? The v3 manual is here
- Did you perform a search about this problem? Here's the GitHub guide about searching.
Dependency Management
- My project is using go modules.
Describe the bug
Parent flags marked as non-persistent (Local=true) are still recognized when specified after a subcommand.
To reproduce
package main
import (
"context"
"log"
"os"
"github.com/urfave/cli/v3"
)
func main() {
cmd := &cli.Command{
Name: "testprog",
Version: "1.0",
Commands: []*cli.Command{
{
Name: "subcmd",
Commands: []*cli.Command{
{
Name: "nested-subcmd",
Action: func(ctx context.Context, c *cli.Command) error {
c.Writer.Write([]byte("The nested subcommand is executed\n"))
return nil
},
},
},
Flags: []cli.Flag{
&cli.StringFlag{
Name: "subcmd-flag",
Local: true,
Action: func(ctx context.Context, c *cli.Command, v string) error {
c.Writer.Write([]byte("--subcmd-flag is presented\n"))
return nil
},
},
},
Action: func(ctx context.Context, c *cli.Command) error {
c.Writer.Write([]byte("The subcommand is executed\n"))
return nil
},
},
},
Flags: []cli.Flag{
&cli.BoolFlag{
Name: "root-flag",
Local: true,
Action: func(ctx context.Context, c *cli.Command, b bool) error {
c.Writer.Write([]byte("--root-flag is presented\n"))
return nil
},
},
},
Action: func(ctx context.Context, c *cli.Command) error {
c.Writer.Write([]byte("The root command is executed\n"))
return nil
},
}
err := cmd.Run(context.Background(), os.Args)
if err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
}Observed behavior
$ testprog subcmd --root-flag
--root-flag is presented
The subcommand is executedExpected behavior
The command should produce an error, indicating that the parent flag is invalid in the subcommand context.
$ testprog subcmd --root-flag
Incorrect Usage: flag provided but not defined: -root-flag
2025/10/13 12:00:33 flag provided but not defined: -root-flagRun go version and paste its output here
go version go1.25.0 linux/amd64
Run go env and paste its output here
AR='ar'
CC='gcc'
CGO_CFLAGS='-O2 -g'
CGO_CPPFLAGS=''
CGO_CXXFLAGS='-O2 -g'
CGO_ENABLED='1'
CGO_FFLAGS='-O2 -g'
CGO_LDFLAGS='-O2 -g'
CXX='g++'
GCCGO='gccgo'
GO111MODULE=''
GOAMD64='v1'
GOARCH='amd64'
GOAUTH='netrc'
GOBIN=''
GOCACHE='/home/follie/.cache/go-build'
GOCACHEPROG=''
GODEBUG=''
GOENV='/home/follie/.config/go/env'
GOEXE=''
GOEXPERIMENT=''
GOFIPS140='off'
GOFLAGS=''
GOGCCFLAGS='-fPIC -m64 -pthread -Wl,--no-gc-sections -fmessage-length=0 -ffile-prefix-map=/tmp/go-build580634775=/tmp/go-build -gno-record-gcc-switches'
GOHOSTARCH='amd64'
GOHOSTOS='linux'
GOINSECURE=''
GOMOD='/home/follie/orara/go.mod'
GOMODCACHE='/home/follie/.local/share/go/pkg/mod'
GONOPROXY=''
GONOSUMDB=''
GOOS='linux'
GOPATH='/home/follie/.local/share/go'
GOPRIVATE=''
GOPROXY='direct'
GOROOT='/nix/store/3fd683jfggglpshxprz9mi5sz8wd3c9p-go-1.25.0/share/go'
GOSUMDB='off'
GOTELEMETRY='off'
GOTELEMETRYDIR='/home/follie/.config/go/telemetry'
GOTMPDIR=''
GOTOOLCHAIN='local'
GOTOOLDIR='/nix/store/3fd683jfggglpshxprz9mi5sz8wd3c9p-go-1.25.0/share/go/pkg/tool/linux_amd64'
GOVCS=''
GOVERSION='go1.25.0'
GOWORK=''
PKG_CONFIG='pkg-config'
Activity
dearchap commentedon Oct 13, 2025
@folliehiyuki there is no concept of global flags in v3. There are only Persistent(apply to current command and subcommands) and non-Persistent/Local flags(which apply only to current command). AFAICS the version flag is set to local so it should not be valid for subcommands. Its perhaps a bug if our processing of version flag. Want to make a fix ?
folliehiyuki commentedon Oct 13, 2025
I edited the issue description to be less misleading. The issue occurs to all non-persistent flags in general, not just
--version.folliehiyuki commentedon Oct 13, 2025
The trace for the above reproduce command:
URFAVE_CLI_TRACING=on testprog subcmd --root-flag >/dev/null[-]Global flags marked as Local are still regconized after a subcommand[/-][+]Global flags marked as Local are still recognized after a subcommand[/+]