Choosy: Picking your Arguments Carefully
This is a small DSL library for creating command line clients in Ruby. It is largely inspired by the choice, commander, and optcomplete.py libraries, though it makes some different design decisions than they do. It is opinionated software.
This library should:
- Make creating command line clients relatively easy.
- Make creating supercommands like git, subversion, and gem easier.
- Allow you to add validation logic for your arguments within the parsing phase.
- Allowing for dependencies between options, so that you can more easily validate related options (i.e. if the
--boldflag requires the--font Arialflag, then you should be able to ask for the--fontoption to be validated first, and then the--boldoption. - Allow you to customize its output using your own formatting system, or provide several convenient defaults when you don't want to provide your own.
This library should never:
- Interact with your execution logic. You can attach executors to commands for convenience, but the execution phase should be delegated to you, not the parsing library. Separation of concerns, people.
- Rely on display or user interface libraries like Highline, since this is only for parsing command lines.
- Pollute your namespaces with my DSL function names. (I really, really hate it when libraries do this.)
Examples
This example is a simple date and time tool.
```ruby
#!/usr/bin/env ruby
# date-time
require 'choosy'
require 'time'
class DateTimeCLI
attr_reader :command
def run!(args)
@command = Choosy::Command.new :'date-time' do
summary "This is a command that prints out the current time"
executor do |args, options| # An executor can just be a simple block.
if options[:utc]
puts Time.now.utc.strftime(options[:format])
else
puts Time.now.strftime(options[:format])
end
end
section "Description" do
para "This tool prints out the current time, with some added effects"
end
section "Options" do
boolean :utc, "Prints it using the UTC format"
string :format, "The format of the output" do
default "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S %z"
end
end
help # Enables the '-h|--help' option.
version "1.0" # Enables the '--version' option.
end.execute!(args)
end
end
if __FILE__ == $0
DateTimeCLI.new.run!(ARGV)
end
```
Another simple tool that lists directories.
```ruby
#!/usr/bin/env ruby
# list-files
require 'choosy'
class ListFilesCLI
attr_reader :command
def run!(args)
exe = self # The following block will change 'self', so we capture context here.
@command = Choosy::Command.new :'date-time' do
summary "This is a command that lists files in directories"
executor exe # Commands need executors that implement 'execute!'.
# We're using 'self'.
section "Description" do
para "This tool prints out some information about directories"
end
section "Options" do
integer :limit, "Limit the printed listing to a given number of files."
boolean :dirs_only, "Only print out directories"
end
help # Enables the '-h|--help' option.
version "1.0" # Enables the '--version' option.
arguments do
metaname 'PATH' # What to display on the manpage
count 0..1 # The number of items allowed, restricted here by a range.
end
end.execute!(args)
end
# Called by the command at the end of the 'run!'
def execute!(args, options)
limit = options[:limit] || 0
paths = if args.empty?
['.']
else
args
end
paths.each do |path|
Dir["#{path}/*"].each do |fname|
puts fname
limit -= 1
if limit == 0
return
end
end
end
end
end
if __FILE__ == $0
ListFilesCLI.new.run!(ARGV)
end
```
Super Commands
You can also combine multiple choices into an uber-choice, creating commands that look a lot like git or subversion.
```ruby
#!/usr/bin/env ruby
# git-wrapper
require 'choosy'
class GitExecutor
def initialize(type)
@type = type
end
def execute!(args, options)
exec("git #{@type}")
end
end
class GitWrapperCLI
attr_reader :command
def run!(args)
exe = self # The following block will change 'self', so we capture context here.
@command = Choosy::SuperCommand.new :'git-wrapper' do
summary "This is a command that lists files in directories"
section "Description" do
para "This tool prints out some information about directories"
end
section "Commands" do
command :status do
summary "Prints out the 'git status'"
executor GitExecutor.new(:status)
help
end
command :diff do
summary "Prints out the 'git diff'"
executor GitExecutor.new(:diff)
help
end
end
help # Enables the '-h|--help' option.
version "1.0" # Enables the '--version' option.
end.execute!(args)
end
end
if __FILE__ == $0
GitWrapperCLI.new.run!(ARGV)
end
```
Output Printing
Choosy allows you to customize the output printing of your documentation. It exposes the internal object model to any class that implements a print!(command) method.
The :standard printer that is the default for any command can also be customized to meet some of your needs:
``` ruby
Choosy::Command.new :foo do
printer :standard, # The default printer
:max_width => 80, # Defaults to the column witdh of the terminal
:color => true, # Default is true
:header_styles => [:bold, :green], # Defaults to [:bold, :blue]
:indent => ' ', # Defaults to this width
:offset => ' ' # Defaults to this width
help "Show this help command."
end
```
This above example sets some useful properties for the printer. First, the :max_width limits the wrapping size on the console. By default, choosy tries to be smart and wrap to the currend column width, but you can introduce this hash parameter as a default max. Next, you can turn off and on color printing by setting :color. Color is on by default, so it's actually superfluous in this example -- just a demonstration of the syntax. The :header_styles is an array of styles that will be applied to the headers for this document. By default, headers are [:bold, :blue]. Most of the ANSI colors and codes are supported, but check lib/choosy/printing/color.rb for additional options. The last two options given are actually formatting spacers in the output that you can customize: :indent is the default indent for commands and options; :offset is the distance between the options and commands to their associated descriptive text.
For those who want the nice, manpage experience, there's also the :manpage printer:
``` ruby
Choosy::Command.new :foo do
printer :manpage,
:max_width => 80, # Same as :standard
:color => true, # Same as :standard
:header_styles => [:bold, :green], # Same as :standard
:option_sytles => [:bold], # Same as :standard
:indent => ' ', # Same as :standard
:offset => ' ', # Same as :standard
:version => FOO_VERSION, # Will use the version name you specify, see below.
:section => 1, # Default is always '1'
:date => '03/24/2011', # Date you want displayed
:manual => 'Foo Co.' # The manual page group
version FOO_VERSION # If you don't supply a version above, this will be used
end
```
Because the library is super-awesome, the manpage will even be in color when piped to less -R (the default)! If you don't like the format of my manpage, feel free to implement your own using the choosy/printing/manpage class, a useful utility class for formatting manpage output correctly.
If you already have some templates that you'd like to use, there is also the :erb template that can be customized by writing a template of your choice:
``` ruby
Choosy::Command.new :foo do
printer :erb,
:color => true, # Defaults to true
:template => 'path/to/file.erb' # Required
end
```
The ERB printer also accepts the :color option. The color is exposed via a color property in the template; the command is exposed by the command property.
Finally, because I don't want to tell you how to print your help, I also give you the option of supplying your own printer. Just create a class with a print!(command) method on that class, and it will be passed in the command that it should print the help for. I have supplied some code you may find useful in choosy/terminal that will help with things like finding commands and determining the column width of the terminal.
``` ruby
class CustomPrinter
def print!(command)
puts "I got called on help for #{command.name}"
end
end
Choosy::Command.new :foo do
printer CustomPrinter.new
end
```