Add the following dependency



<dependency>

          <groupId>org.kohsuke.args4j</groupId>

          <artifactId>args4j-maven-plugin</artifactId>

          <version>2.33</version>

</dependency>



In the main class add the following element



@Option(name = "-date", required = true, metaVar = "mmddyyyy", usage = "date for which we want this to happen")

private String date = null;



Within the main method add code to parse command line args and populate date 



public static void main(String args[]){

           try {

         parser.parseArgument(args);

         SimpleDateFormat commandLineDateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("mmddyyyy", Locale.getDefault());

               Date date = commandLineDateFormat.parse(date);



       } catch (Exception ex){

          ex.printStackTrace();

       }

}