Menutree

Menutree is a framework for presenting a recursive Read-Eval-Print Loop (REPL) shell on the command line, inspired by the CLI found in Cisco IOS and other similar products. Menutree lets users issue commands via an interactive nested shell interface, and also directly from the command line.

The menu structure and commands therein are defined by a directory of ruby scripts conforming to a simple interface. Inline help, command completion, and readline support are all built in.

Example:

Given a hypothetical program 'ticket' that uses the Menutree gem to manage a list of tickets (such a program is included in examples/), a sample interaction might look like:

$ ruby ticket.rb
> action_one 
One
> submenu_one
/submenu_one> action_one
Unknown command 'action_one'
/submenu_one> ..
> exit

Commands could also be run from the shell:

$ rubyticke add "Make a little love"
Ticket "Make a little love" added as ticket 214

To implement this, ticker would provide Menutree with a directory that looked like:

commands/
    init.rb
    add/
        default.rb
    rm/
        default.rb