TL;DR

App::Easer V2 now can output the help even for non-hierarchical applications.

To get help about a command, App::Easer::V2 provides a help sub-command out of the box most of the times. The exception is for leaf commands, which do not have sub-commands.

This is not a big deal with hierarchical applications, because it’s possible to invoke the help sub-command of the parent command and pass the name of the sub-command we need help with:

# print help about `topcmd`
$ topcmd help

# print help about `subcmd` under `topcmd`
$ topcmd help subcmd

On the other hand, for non-hierarchical applications, the only available command is also a leaf and this hinders getting a meaningful, auto-generated help text off the shelf.

In this case, it’s possible to include an option for getting help, like this:

my $app = {
   options => [
      {
         getopt => 'help|h!',
         help   => 'print help on the command',
      },
      ...

Then, inside the execute sub, it’s possible to run the help sub-command explicitly:

sub execute ($self) {
   return $self->run_help if $self->config('help');

   # ... normal code for "execute"
   # ...
}

In addition, it’s also possible to get the text of the full help, e.g. if it needs some additional formatting before being printed out. In the example below this is indented with some spaces before being printed out between two markers:

sub execute ($self) {
   if ($self->config('help')) {
      say '--- this is some wrapping for the help ---';
      print $self->full_help_text =~ s{^}{     }rgmxs;
      say '--- end of the help here, and of wrapping too ---';
      return 0;
   }

   # ... normal code for "execute"
   # ...
}

Thanks to djerius for pointing out this need!

Now I’ll have to bite the bullet and finally release V2…