spf13--cobra/README.md

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# Cobra
A Commander for modern go CLI interactions
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[![Build Status](https://travis-ci.org/spf13/cobra.png)](https://travis-ci.org/spf13/cobra)
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## Overview
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Cobra is a commander providing a simple interface to create powerful modern CLI
interfaces similar to git & go tools. In addition to providing an iterface, Cobra
simultaneously provides a controller to organize your application code.
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Inspired by go, go-Commander, gh and subcommand, Cobra improves on these by
providing **fully posix compliant flags** (including short & long versions),
**nesting commands**, and the ability to **define your own help and usage** for any or
all commands.
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Cobra has an exceptionally clean interface and simple design without needless
constructors or initialization methods.
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## Concepts
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Cobra is built on a structure of commands & flags.
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**Commands** represent actions and **Flags** are modifiers for those actions.
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In the following example 'server' is a command and 'port' is a flag.
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hugo server --port=1313
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### Commands
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Command is the central point of the application. Each interaction that
the application supports will be contained in a Command. A command can
have children commands and optionally run an action.
In the example above 'server' is the command
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A Command has the following structure:
type Command struct {
Use string // The one-line usage message.
Short string // The short description shown in the 'help' output.
Long string // The long message shown in the 'help <this-command>' output.
Run func(cmd *Command, args []string) // Run runs the command.
}
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### Flags
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A Flag is a way to modify the behavior of an command. Cobra supports
fully posix compliant flags as well as the go flag package.
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A Cobra command can define flags that persist through to children commands
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and flags that are only available to that command.
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In the example above 'port' is the flag.
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Flag functionality is provided by the [pflag
libary](https://github.com/ogier/pflag), a fork of the flag standard library
which maintains the same interface while adding posix compliance.
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## Usage
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Cobra works by creating a set of commands and then organizing them into a tree.
The tree defines the structure of the application.
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Once each command is defined with it's corresponding flags, then the
tree is assigned to the commander which is finally executed.
### Installing
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Using Cobra is easy. First use go get to install the latest version
of the library.
$ go get github.com/spf13/cobra
Next include cobra in your application.
import "github.com/spf13/cobra"
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### Create the root command
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The root command represents your binary itself.
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Cobra doesn't require any special constructors. Simply create your commands.
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var HugoCmd = &cobra.Command{
Use: "hugo",
Short: "Hugo is a very fast static site generator",
Long: `A Fast and Flexible Static Site Generator built with
love by spf13 and friends in Go.
Complete documentation is available at http://hugo.spf13.com`,
Run: func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) {
// Do Stuff Here
},
}
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### Create additional commands
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Additional commands can be defined.
var versionCmd = &cobra.Command{
Use: "version",
Short: "Print the version number of Hugo",
Long: `All software has versions. This is Hugo's`,
Run: func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) {
fmt.Println("Hugo Static Site Generator v0.9 -- HEAD")
},
}
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### Attach command to its parent
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In this example we are attaching it to the root, but commands can be attached at any level.
HugoCmd.AddCommand(versionCmd)
### Assign flags to a command
Since the flags are defined and used in different locations, we need to define a variable outside with the correct scope to assign the flag to work with.
var Verbose bool
var Source string
There are two different approaches to assign a flag.
#### Persistent Flags
A flag can be 'persistent' meaning that this flag will be available to the
command it's assigned to as well as every command under that command. For
global flags assign a flag as a persistent flag on the root.
HugoCmd.PersistentFlags().BoolVarP(&Verbose, "verbose", "v", false, "verbose output")
#### Local Flags
A flag can also be assigned locally which will only apply to that specific command.
HugoCmd.Flags().StringVarP(&Source, "source", "s", "", "Source directory to read from")
### Once all commands and flags are defined, Execute the commands
Execute should be run on the root for clarity, though it can be called on any command.
HugoCmd.Execute()
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## Example
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In the example below we have defined three commands. Two are at the top level
and one (cmdTimes) is a child of one of the top commands. In this case the root
is not executible meaning that a subcommand is required. This is accomplished
by not providing a 'Run' for the 'rootCmd'.
We have only defined one flag for a single command.
More documentation about flags is available at https://github.com/spf13/pflag
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import(
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"github.com/spf13/cobra"
"fmt"
"strings"
)
func main() {
var echoTimes int
var cmdPrint = &cobra.Command{
Use: "print [string to print]",
Short: "Print anything to the screen",
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Long: `print is for printing anything back to the screen.
For many years people have printed back to the screen.
`,
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Run: func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) {
fmt.Println("Print: " + strings.Join(args, " "))
},
}
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var cmdEcho = &cobra.Command{
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Use: "echo [string to echo]",
Short: "Echo anything to the screen",
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Long: `echo is for echoing anything back.
Echo works a lot like print, except it has a child command.
`,
Run: func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) {
fmt.Println("Print: " + strings.Join(args, " "))
},
}
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var cmdTimes = &cobra.Command{
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Use: "times [# times] [string to echo]",
Short: "Echo anything to the screen more times",
Long: `echo things multiple times back to the user by providing
a count and a string.`,
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Run: func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) {
for i:=0; i < echoTimes; i++ {
fmt.Println("Echo: " + strings.Join(args, " "))
}
},
}
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cmdTimes.Flags().IntVarP(&echoTimes, "times", "t", 1, "times to echo the input")
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var rootCmd = &cobra.Command{Use: "app"}
rootCmd.AddCommand(cmdPrint, cmdEcho)
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cmdEcho.AddCommand(cmdTimes)
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rootCmd.Execute()
}
For a more complete example of a larger application, please checkout [Hugo](http://hugo.spf13.com)
## The Help Command
Cobra automatically adds a help command to your application.
This will be called when a user runs 'app help'. Additionally help will also
support all other commands as input. Say for instance you have a command called
'create' without any additional configuration cobra will work when 'app help
create' is called.
### Example
The following output is automatically generated by cobra. Nothing beyond the
command and flag definitions are needed.
> hugo help
A Fast and Flexible Static Site Generator built with
love by spf13 and friends in Go.
Complete documentation is available at http://hugo.spf13.com
Usage:
hugo [flags]
hugo [command]
Available Commands:
server :: Hugo runs it's own a webserver to render the files
version :: Print the version number of Hugo
check :: Check content in the source directory
benchmark :: Benchmark hugo by building a site a number of times
help [command] :: Help about any command
Available Flags:
-b, --base-url="": hostname (and path) to the root eg. http://spf13.com/
-D, --build-drafts=false: include content marked as draft
--config="": config file (default is path/config.yaml|json|toml)
-d, --destination="": filesystem path to write files to
-s, --source="": filesystem path to read files relative from
--stepAnalysis=false: display memory and timing of different steps of the program
--uglyurls=false: if true, use /filename.html instead of /filename/
-v, --verbose=false: verbose output
-w, --watch=false: watch filesystem for changes and recreate as needed
Use "hugo help [command]" for more information about that command.
Help is just a command like any other. There is no special logic or behavior
around it. In fact you can provide your own if you want.
### Defining your own help
You can provide your own Help command or you own template for the default command to use.
The default help command is
func (c *Command) initHelp() {
if c.helpCommand == nil {
c.helpCommand = &Command{
Use: "help [command]",
Short: "Help about any command",
Long: `Help provides help for any command in the application.
Simply type ` + c.Name() + ` help [path to command] for full details.`,
Run: c.HelpFunc(),
}
}
c.AddCommand(c.helpCommand)
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}
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You can provide your own command, function or template through the following methods.
command.SetHelpCommand(cmd *Command)
command.SetHelpFunc(f func(*Command, []string))
command.SetHelpTemplate(s string)
The latter two will also apply to any children commands.
## Usage
When the user provides an invalid flag or invalid command Cobra responds by
showing the user the 'usage'
### Example
You may recognize this from the help above. That's because the default help
embeds the usage as part of it's output.
Usage:
hugo [flags]
hugo [command]
Available Commands:
server :: Hugo runs it's own a webserver to render the files
version :: Print the version number of Hugo
check :: Check content in the source directory
benchmark :: Benchmark hugo by building a site a number of times
help [command] :: Help about any command
Available Flags:
-b, --base-url="": hostname (and path) to the root eg. http://spf13.com/
-D, --build-drafts=false: include content marked as draft
--config="": config file (default is path/config.yaml|json|toml)
-d, --destination="": filesystem path to write files to
-s, --source="": filesystem path to read files relative from
--stepAnalysis=false: display memory and timing of different steps of the program
--uglyurls=false: if true, use /filename.html instead of /filename/
-v, --verbose=false: verbose output
-w, --watch=false: watch filesystem for changes and recreate as needed
### Defining your own usage
You can provide your own usage function or template for cobra to use.
The default usage function is
return func(c *Command) error {
err := tmpl(c.Out(), c.UsageTemplate(), c)
return err
}
Like help the function and template are over ridable through public methods.
command.SetUsageFunc(f func(*Command) error)
command.SetUsageTemplate(s string)
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## Release Notes
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* **0.8.0** Nov 5, 2013
* Reworked interface to remove commander completely
* Command now primary structure
* No initialization needed
* Usage & Help templates & functions definable at any level
* Updated Readme
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* **0.7.0** Sept 24, 2013
* Needs more eyes
* Test suite
* Support for automatic error messages
* Support for help command
* Support for printing to any io.Writer instead of os.Stderr
* Support for persistent flags which cascade down tree
* Ready for integration into Hugo
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* **0.1.0** Sept 3, 2013
* Implement first draft
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## ToDo
* Launch proper documentation site
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## Contributing
1. Fork it
2. Create your feature branch (`git checkout -b my-new-feature`)
3. Commit your changes (`git commit -am 'Add some feature'`)
4. Push to the branch (`git push origin my-new-feature`)
5. Create new Pull Request
## Contributors
Names in no particular order:
* [spf13](https://github.com/spf13)
## License
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Cobra is released under the Apache 2.0 license. See [LICENSE.txt](https://github.com/spf13/cobra/blob/master/LICENSE.txt)
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