It is possible to deprecate a flag, or just its shorthand. Deprecating a flag/shorthand hides it from help text and prints a usage message when the deprecated flag/shorthand is used.
**Example #1**: You want to deprecate a flag named "badflag" as well as inform the users what flag they should use instead.
```go
// deprecate a flag by specifying its name and a usage message
flags.MarkDeprecated("badflag","please use --good-flag instead")
```
This hides "badflag" from help text, and prints `Flag --badflag has been deprecated, please use --good-flag instead` when "badflag" is used.
**Example #2**: You want to keep a flag name "noshorthandflag" but deprecate its shortname "n".
```go
// deprecate a flag shorthand by specifying its flag name and a usage message
flags.MarkShorthandDeprecated("noshorthandflag","please use --noshorthandflag only")
```
This hides the shortname "n" from help text, and prints `Flag shorthand -n has been deprecated, please use --noshorthandflag only` when the shorthand "n" is used.
Note that usage message is essential here, and it should not be empty.
## More info
You can see the full reference documentation of the pflag package