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spf13 2013-11-05 12:40:10 -05:00
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README.md
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@ -5,28 +5,30 @@ A Commander for modern go CLI interactions
[![Build Status](https://travis-ci.org/spf13/cobra.png)](https://travis-ci.org/spf13/cobra)
## Overview
Cobra provides a simple interface to create powerful modern CLI
interfaces similar to git & go tools.
Cobra was inspired by go, go-Commander, gh and subcommand
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.
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.
Cobra has an exceptionally clean interface and simple design without needless
constructors or initialization methods.
## Concepts
There are 3 different core objects to become familiar with to use Cobra.
To help illustrate these 3 items better use the following as an example:
Cobra is built on a structure of commands & flags.
**Commands** represent actions and **Flags** are modifiers for those actions.
In the following example 'server' is a command and 'port' is a flag.
hugo server --port=1313
### Commander
The Commander is the head of your application. It holds the configuration
for your application. It also is responsible for all global flags.
In the example above 'hugo' is the commander.
### Command
### Commands
Command is the central point of the application. Each interaction that
the application supports will be contained in a Command. A command can
@ -34,21 +36,37 @@ have children commands and optionally run an action.
In the example above 'server' is the command
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.
}
### Flags
A flag is a way to modify the behavior of an command. Cobra supports
fully posix compliant flags as well as remaining consistent with
the go flag package. A Cobra command has can define flags that
persist through to children commands and flags that are only available
to that command.
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.
A Cobra command has can define flags that persist through to children commands
and flags that are only available to that command.
In the example above 'port' is the flag.
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.
## Usage
### Implementing Cobra
Cobra works by creating a set of commands and then organizing them into a tree.
The tree defines the structure of the application.
Once each command is defined with it's corresponding flags, then the
tree is assigned to the commander which is finally executed.
### Installing
Using Cobra is easy. First use go get to install the latest version
of the library.
@ -58,23 +76,81 @@ Next include cobra in your application.
import "github.com/spf13/cobra"
Now you are ready to implement Cobra.
### Create the root command
Cobra works by creating a set of commands and then organizing them into a tree.
The tree defines the structure of the application.
The root command represents your binary itself.
Once each command is defined with it's corresponding flags, then the
tree is assigned to the commander which is finally executed.
Cobra doesn't require any special constructors. Simply create your commands.
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.
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
},
}
### Create additional commands
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")
},
}
### Attach command to it's parent
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()
## Example
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
## Example
Import(
"github.com/spf13/cobra"
"fmt"
@ -119,17 +195,150 @@ More documentation about flags is available at https://github.com/spf13/pflag
},
}
cmdTimes().Flags().IntVarP(&echoTimes, "times", "t", 1, "times to echo the input")
var commander = cobra.NewCommander()
commander.SetName("CobraExample")
commander.AddCommand(cmdPrint, cmdEcho)
var rootCmd = &cobra.Command{Use: "app"}
rootCmd.AddCommand(cmdPrint, cmdEcho)
cmdEcho.AddCommand(cmdTimes)
commander.Execute()
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)
}
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)
## Release Notes
* **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
* **0.7.0** Sept 24, 2013
* Needs more eyes
* Test suite
@ -142,8 +351,6 @@ More documentation about flags is available at https://github.com/spf13/pflag
* Implement first draft
## ToDo
* More testing of non-runnable
* More testing
* Launch proper documentation site
## Contributing