Allows command suggestions along with "unknown command" errors

README.md

@@ -418,6 +418,30 @@ func main() {
 }
 ```
 
+## Suggestions when "unknown command" happens
+
+Cobra will print automatic suggestions when "unknown command" errors happen. This allows Cobra to behavior similarly to the `git` command when a typo happens. For example:
+
+```
+$ hugo srever
+unknown command "srever" for "hugo"
+
+Did you mean this?
+  server
+
+Run 'hugo --help' for usage.
+```
+
+Suggestions are automatic based on every subcommand registered and use an implementation of Levenshtein distance. Every registered command that matches a minimum distance of 2 (ignoring case) will be displayed as a suggestion.
+
+If you need to disable suggestions or tweak the string distance in your command, use:
+
+    command.DisableSuggestions = true
+
+or 
+
+    command.SuggestionsMinimumDistance = 1
+
 ## Generating markdown formatted documentation for your command
 
 Cobra can generate a markdown formatted document based on the subcommands, flags, etc. A simple example of how to do this for your command can be found in [Markdown Docs](md_docs.md)

cobra.go

@@ -126,3 +126,39 @@ func tmpl(w io.Writer, text string, data interface{}) error {
 	template.Must(t.Parse(text))
 	return t.Execute(w, data)
 }
+
+// ld compares two strings and returns the levenshtein distance between them
+func ld(s, t string, ignoreCase bool) int {
+	if ignoreCase {
+		s = strings.ToLower(s)
+		t = strings.ToLower(t)
+	}
+	d := make([][]int, len(s)+1)
+	for i := range d {
+		d[i] = make([]int, len(t)+1)
+	}
+	for i := range d {
+		d[i][0] = i
+	}
+	for j := range d[0] {
+		d[0][j] = j
+	}
+	for j := 1; j <= len(t); j++ {
+		for i := 1; i <= len(s); i++ {
+			if s[i-1] == t[j-1] {
+				d[i][j] = d[i-1][j-1]
+			} else {
+				min := d[i-1][j]
+				if d[i][j-1] < min {
+					min = d[i][j-1]
+				}
+				if d[i-1][j-1] < min {
+					min = d[i-1][j-1]
+				}
+				d[i][j] = min + 1
+			}
+		}
+
+	}
+	return d[len(s)][len(t)]
+}

cobra_test.go

@@ -799,6 +799,34 @@ func TestRootUnknownCommand(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+func TestRootSuggestions(t *testing.T) {
+	outputWithSuggestions := "Error: unknown command \"%s\" for \"cobra-test\"\n\nDid you mean this?\n\t%s\n\nRun 'cobra-test --help' for usage.\n"
+	outputWithoutSuggestions := "Error: unknown command \"%s\" for \"cobra-test\"\nRun 'cobra-test --help' for usage.\n"
+
+	cmd := initializeWithRootCmd()
+	cmd.AddCommand(cmdTimes)
+
+	tests := map[string]string{
+		"time":  "times",
+		"tiems": "times",
+		"timeS": "times",
+		"rimes": "times",
+	}
+
+	for typo, suggestion := range tests {
+		cmd.DisableSuggestions = false
+		result := simpleTester(cmd, typo)
+		if expected := fmt.Sprintf(outputWithSuggestions, typo, suggestion); result.Output != expected {
+			t.Errorf("Unexpected response.\nExpecting to be:\n %q\nGot:\n %q\n", expected, result.Output)
+		}
+		cmd.DisableSuggestions = true
+		result = simpleTester(cmd, typo)
+		if expected := fmt.Sprintf(outputWithoutSuggestions, typo); result.Output != expected {
+			t.Errorf("Unexpected response.\nExpecting to be:\n %q\nGot:\n %q\n", expected, result.Output)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
 func TestFlagsBeforeCommand(t *testing.T) {
 	// short without space
 	x := fullSetupTest("-i10 echo")

command.go

@@ -106,6 +106,11 @@ type Command struct {
 	helpCommand   *Command                 // The help command
 	// The global normalization function that we can use on every pFlag set and children commands
 	globNormFunc func(f *flag.FlagSet, name string) flag.NormalizedName
+
+	// Disable the suggestions based on Levenshtein distance that go along with 'unknown command' messages
+	DisableSuggestions bool
+	// If displaying suggestions, allows to set the minimum levenshtein distance to display, must be > 0
+	SuggestionsMinimumDistance int
 }
 
 // os.Args[1:] by default, if desired, can be overridden
@@ -419,9 +424,31 @@ func (c *Command) Find(args []string) (*Command, []string, error) {
 	if !commandFound.HasSubCommands() {
 		return commandFound, a, nil
 	}
+
 	// root command with subcommands, do subcommand checking
 	if commandFound == c && len(argsWOflags) > 0 {
-		return commandFound, a, fmt.Errorf("unknown command %q for %q", argsWOflags[0], commandFound.CommandPath())
+		suggestions := ""
+		if !c.DisableSuggestions {
+			if c.SuggestionsMinimumDistance <= 0 {
+				c.SuggestionsMinimumDistance = 2
+			}
+			similar := []string{}
+			for _, cmd := range c.commands {
+				if cmd.IsAvailableCommand() {
+					levenshtein := ld(argsWOflags[0], cmd.Name(), true)
+					if levenshtein <= c.SuggestionsMinimumDistance {
+						similar = append(similar, cmd.Name())
+					}
+				}
+			}
+			if len(similar) > 0 {
+				suggestions += "\n\nDid you mean this?\n"
+				for _, s := range similar {
+					suggestions += fmt.Sprintf("\t%v\n", s)
+				}
+			}
+		}
+		return commandFound, a, fmt.Errorf("unknown command %q for %q%s", argsWOflags[0], commandFound.CommandPath(), suggestions)
 	}
 
 	return commandFound, a, nil